Bear Mountain Bridge spans the Hudson River south of West Point carrying US Routes 6 and 202. I crossed the bridge yesterday after my visit at West Point per the advice of my host. He suggested it as an engineering marvel of its day and today. I heard about the famed structure while researching the Bay Bridge history last year. Also, Jack Kerouac started his cross country journeys with a trip up to Bear Mountain in “On The Road” a favorite read of mine. The Bear Mountain Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1924. True to his word, the bridge was a worth of the journey down river. Had I had time, I would have enjoyed walking over it.
When a bridge’s superstructure does not allow pedestrians the intimate act of a stroll over its deck, the public loses an important touch point. That experience is key. Case in point: The Golden Gate bridge is beloved. The San Francisco Bay Bridge is not. The difference is pedestrians have been waking the Golden Gate’s sidewalks for over 75 years. The Bay Bridge spent its first 75 years without sidewalks open to the public. The bridges are 3 miles apart. The Bay Bridge has striking views of its own.
The new East Span of the Bay Bridge has just added a sidewalk to its new East Span on the labor day opening of 2013. But the sidewalks ends before you reach even the halfway point. It’s going to take perhaps another 10 years to get a sidewalk if ever. This is not good. Today people are biking and walking on the sidewalk that deadens. They love it. They deserve a walk all the way across.
Dan McNichol is a number-one bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. His published books, articles, thought-leadership papers and speaking events focus on mega construction projects in the United States and The Peoples Republic of China.
McNichol recently contributed to a front page story in The New York Times titled, “Trump-Sized Idea for a New President: Build Stuff”. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) / Boston Chapter named McNichol as one of nation’s outstanding journalists in 2014 and again in 2003. McNichol contributes to worldwide media outlets including: The New York Times, Engineering News Record (ENR), ABC World News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) network, China Central Television (CCTV), TV Tokyo, MSNBC and PBS’s The NewsHour, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel. McNichol is a frequent voice on National Public Radio (NPR).
ENR Magazine recently tapped McNichol as the magazine’s national correspondent for a cross country tour. McNichol and Aileen Cho, ENR’s senior transportation editor, drove in a 1949 Hudson Commodore with the tagline, “America’s infrastructure is as old, rusty and energy defunct as our original Detroit lead-sled.” The journalists wrote ENR print and online cover stories about the nation’s ailing infrastructure.
A former White House appointee, McNichol served the President on US policy issues surrounding transportation and infrastructure between 1991-1993. McNichol has worked in official capacities on the nation’s largest infrastructure projects: California High Speed Rail (2017), San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Replacement (2013) and The Big Dig, a.k.a. The Central Artery / Third Harbor Tunnel Project (2000).
