A century ago, at 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day in 1924, the Bear Mountain Bridge opened to the public. At the time, it was the first bridge to have a concrete deck, the first crossing over the Hudson River south of Albany and the world’s longest suspension bridge, with a main span of 1,632 feet and an overall length of 2,255 feet. It has 7,452 wires, each 18 inches thick, supported by a pair of 361-foot towers. It is 155 feet, or about 15 stories, above the river.
Construction had begun 20 months earlier, in March 1923, and the project cost about $84 million in today’s dollars. A bridge for the spot had been proposed much earlier, in 1869, but by 1916 only foundation work had been completed.
View from the Booth Former toll-taker recalls 16 years at Bear Mountain Bridge
When he collected tolls on the Bear Mountain Bridge, a job he held for 16 years until the booth was removed in 2022, Pete Carroll estimates he greeted 1,000 drivers daily.
“I didn’t know anybody’s last name, but I knew about half of them by their first names,” he recalled.
Pete Carroll (Photo provided)
Hired in 2006, Carroll said he and his fellow collectors were known for their friendly disposition. “It was such a good atmosphere,” he said. “We were so proud of our job that we were always happy, including all the guys in maintenance.”
The toll, 75 cents when he began, could create issues. “If someone gave us $100, we had to take it,” he said. “That wiped us out. We started the shift with $150 in change.”
Three or four times per shift, a driver would claim to have no cash. “We’d issue an IOU,” Carroll said, although repeat offenders were warned. Some customers tried to slip in foreign coins, usually Canadian, but also from India and South America.
The toll booth before it was removed in 2022
A far more serious situation developed when someone contemplated jumping from the bridge. Carroll recalled a young man climbing the cables to the top of the stanchion; it was so foggy that first responders couldn’t see him. “It took about five hours, but when rescuers finally got up there, the guy was asleep,” he said.
He added: “I don’t think people would jump if they knew what happens when they hit the water.”
Carroll prefers happier memories, such as watching hundreds of vintage cars and motorcycles cross the bridge for shows at Bear Mountain State Park, chatting with celebrities such as Whoopie Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and New York governors as they paid the toll, or the delivery man who brought him Boston cream donuts most nights.
One of Carroll’s fondest recollections was discovering a notebook kept by an engineer who worked on the bridge before it opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1924. The information inside was useful for recent renovations.
He chuckled while recalling drivers who missed the turn on the roundabout and asked at the booth how to get into West Point. “I’d tell them to study hard, and that it helps to know a U.S. senator,” Carroll said.
In 1922, the Bear Mountain Hudson River Bridge Co. was authorized by the state to build an automobile bridge with a 3-mile approach from the Albany Post Road north of Peekskill. Today that road is informally known as “the goat trail.” The increasing popularity of Bear Mountain State Park fueled the need for the bridge, which eventually replaced car ferries, according to Kathryn Burke, director of Historic Bridges of the Hudson Valley and the author of Hudson River Bridges.
Traffic has increased dramatically: In 1940, there were 143,417 crossings; today there are 7.6 million annually.
The New York State Bridge Authority, which operates the bridge, has scheduled two events for Sunday (Nov. 24) to celebrate the centennial. At 10 a.m., a parade and motorcade starting at the Garrison School will cross the bridge with up to 10 vehicles from every decade since the 1920s. At 3 p.m., at the Paramount Hudson Valley in Peekskill, there will be a screening of the documentary, Bear Mountain Bridge: The First 100 Years. Admission is $10. For more information, visit bmb100.com.
Photos courtesy of Historic Bridges of the Hudson Valley
Working on the eastern approach, Sept. 25, 1924
Nearly complete, Oct. 6, 1924
The west shore approach, looking north, March 16, 1924
The cables are placed into their final position, May 2, 1924
The cables are placed into their final position, May 2, 1924
A view of the bridge on Oct. 21, 1924
The east span under construction on Sept. 25, 1924
Michael Turton has been a reporter with The Current since its founding, after working in the same capacity at the Putnam County News & Recorder. Turton spent 20 years as community relations supervisor for the Essex Region Conservation Authority in Ontario before his move in 1998 to Philipstown, where he handled similar duties at Glynwood Farm and The Hastings Center. The Cold Spring resident holds degrees in environmental studies from the University of Waterloo, in education from the University of Windsor and in communication arts from St. Clair College.
Your article makes it sound as if New York State hired the Bear Mountain Hudson River Bridge Co. to construct it. In fact, the bridge was built by the Harrimans, a wealthy local family, and only sold to the state many years later.
Your article makes it sound as if New York State hired the Bear Mountain Hudson River Bridge Co. to construct it. In fact, the bridge was built by the Harrimans, a wealthy local family, and only sold to the state many years later.