Camera Dashboard: 30 in 30: #24

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

30 in 30: #24

"The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city. It is painted an aluminum color and, between water and sky, you see nothing but the bent cord supported by two steel towers. When your car moves up the ramp the two towers rise so high that it brings you happiness; their structure is so pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh."

Today many would argue the above assertion by Le Corbusier, made in 1947 for the structure completed in 1931. The Brooklyn Bridge is much more beloved than this bridge that links New Jersey and Upper Manhattan. But Le Corbusier was speaking polemically, arguing for an architecture of economy, an expression of technology (in this case steel), an unadorned beauty.

To experience the bridge on foot - something that can be done on most of Manhattan's bridges - is to experience it in a much different way than Le Corbusier did over fifty years ago. First, one doesn't pass under the tall archway but rather actually engages the leg as it meets the roadway and sidewalk. A glimpse up reveals a dense network of steel, like one cut-out pattern is repeated four times and connected horizontally. Second, the scale and size of the suspension members is perceived to be much larger in person than when zipping (or crawling) by in a car. Basically, the bridge is more staid than Le Corbusier would have one believe.

Like the other Manhattan bridges, where the GW doesn't disappoint is the views it affords of Manhattan and its surroundings. The experience of the bridge is one of noise and a sidewalk not conducive to foot traffic like the Brooklyn Bridge, but it's worth it for its unique glimpse of the Hudson, New York, and New Jersey.