Bear Mountain Bridge celebrates 100 years of service
The Bear Mountain Bridge – a 2,255-foot span connecting Orange and Rockland to Westchester and Putnam counties – was the first vehicular bridge over the Hudson River south of Albany, and the first suspension bridge with a concrete deck. For a brief period, it also held the title of "bridge with the longest suspended central span in the world."
On November 27, 2024 this iconic Hudson Valley suspension bridge will celebrate 100 years of service.
But before that, on Sunday, November 24, 2024, community members will gather to celebrate the opening just as it happened 100 years ago: via motorcade. Cars from every decade from 1924 to 2024 will cross the Bear Mountain Bridge to kick off the BMB’s centennial week ceremonies. (Interested in joining the motorcade? Email bmb100@nysba.ny.gov. Space is limited to 10 vehicles per decade.)
Due to the popularity of the Bear Mountain State Park that opened in 1916, the bridge was needed to help ease the congestion of day-trippers traveling upriver via ferryboat.
Completed in just 20 months, the Bear Mountain Bridge was a “groundbreaking engineering achievement for its time.” Many consider the innovations with the Bear Mountain Bridge to have spurred a boom in bridge building in New York State and the entire country in the years following, inspiring the building of the George Washington and Golden Gate bridges. The Bear Mountain Bridge was dedicated on November 26, 1924 with a motorcade, ribbon-cutting, and performance by the West Point Band, and opened to the general public a day later, on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1924.
For updates on the centennial celebration, visit https://www.bmb100.com/
