Scientist of the Day - Othmar Ammann

George Washington Bridge from the north, Manhattan side, recent photograph by Beyond My Ken (Wikimedia commons)

Othmar Ammann, a Swiss/American civil engineer, was born Mar. 26, 1879. He received his technical education in Zurich, before heading for New York City in 1904. He wanted to build bridges, and there was a lot of water left to cross around Manhattan.  Ammann started at the bottom at various engineering firms in New York and impressed everyone he worked for, and before long he ended up in the employ of Gustav Lindenthal, who was building the attractive Hell Gate Bridge from the Bronx to Queens, and who had plans for an enormous cantilever bridge across the Hudson River at 59th St, connecting New York and New Jersey. Nothing could be done during World War I, but afterward, Ammann, still working for Lindenthal, began to push for a lighter, cheaper, steel bridge across the Hudson. Lindenthal refused to give up his grand plans, so Ammann did an end run on his own; the Port Authority liked his ideas, and Ammann was hired as their chief engineer. Lindenthal was not pleased.

Portrait of Othmar Ammann, age 43, photograph, 1932 (Wikimedia commons)

What we call the George Washington Bridge was begun in 1927, although it was known during construction as the Hudson River Bridge. 179th St. was chosen as the crossing point, because there were cliffs on both sides that already placed the bridge 200 feet above the water. Although through arch bridges were the choice at the time for long spans (the Hell Gate Bridge was a through arch bridge, as would be the Sydney Harbour Bridge),  Ammann thought that a suspension bridge would provide the same stability and would be lighter, cheaper, and more aesthetically appealing, he convinced the Port Authority, and construction of the two towers began.

View of the George Washington Bridge, looking east from New Jersey, historic but undated photo, Library of Congress (Wikimedia commons)

The building of the George Washington Bridge was much less eventful than the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge a half-century earlier. The central span was 3500 feet, the longest in the world, until the Golden Gate Bridge opened 6 years later. Ammann opted for wires rather than eye-bars to suspend the roadway from the cables, which made the bridge even lighter (and cheaper). There were initially 6 traffic lanes with a median (the median would soon be removed in favor of two more traffic lanes; and much later, a second deck, with 6 more lanes, would be hung below). The bridge was dedicated on Oct. 25, 1931, a triumph of the Depression Era, and Ammann was at the top of the engineering pantheon.

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, recent photograph by Joe Mazzola (Wikimedia commons)

The big surprise of the George Washington bridge was the pair of naked steel towers (third image).  It had been planned that the towers would be covered with concrete and sheathed with limestone, to add stability, and because towers were always sheathed in stone, but Ammann’s consulting architect, Cass Gilbert, wondered if the bridge wouldn’t look better with the materials of construction apparent to all, Ammann agreed, and the steel towers were presented as steel towers. It was an aesthetically wise decision, and set a precedent for nearly every subsequent suspension bridge.

U.S. Postage Stamp, commemorating the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, issued to coincide with the bridge opening, Nov. 21, 1964; note that “Verrazzano” was misspelled, as always was until 2018; National Postal Museum (postalmuseum.si.edu).

Ammann went on to serve as chief engineer for six New York City bridges, including the Triborough Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Throggs Neck Bridge, and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.  The last was Ammann’s last as well; it spanned the strait at the bottom of New York Harbor, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn. It was completed in 1964, 33 years after the George Washington Bridge, and with a span of 4,260 feet, it too was the longest suspension bridge in the world for a short time, in this case 17 years. It is, in my opinion, Ammann’s most attractive bridge, and it was the subject of a postage stamp, issued to coincide with the opening on Nov. 21, 1964, and showing, as well as the bridge, a helpful map of New York Harbor, indicating the location of the bridge (fifth image).

U.S. postage stamp showing the George Washington Bridge, issued in 1952 to commemorate the centennial of the founding of the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Postal Museum (postalmuseum.si.edu)

The George Washington Bridge did not get a stamp of its own when it opened, but in 1952, when a stamp was issued to celebrate the centennial of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Ammann’s George Washington Bridge was chosen to represent 100 years of significant achievements in American engineering (sixth image). It was an inspired choice.

A good source on Othmar Ammann, the one I used here, is Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America (Knopf, 1995), by Henry Petroski, who devoted a long chapter of over 100 pages to Amman.

William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.