Bear Mountain & Harriman State Parks
Bear Mountain Bridge: The Park Became So Popular It Needed a Bridge
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
The Bear Mountain Bridge is infrastructure created partly by the success of a park.
That is an unusual origin story.
As Bear Mountain attracted huge crowds from New York and the wider region, ferries struggled to handle visitors and their automobiles.
A private company received state authority to construct a highway crossing.
The bridge opened on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1924.
At the time, it was the first highway bridge crossing the Hudson south of Albany.
The bridge changed recreation immediately.
People from the east side of the river could reach Bear Mountain without waiting for ferry capacity.
Automobile tourism expanded.
Roads became more important to park planning.
The Hudson, once the transportation route bringing visitors by boat, became an obstacle cars needed engineering to overcome.
The bridge also entered a larger network of scenic roads that made the Highlands increasingly accessible.
That improved public use—the core mission of the park.
It also increased development and traffic pressure.
Once again, access and preservation pull in opposite directions.
The Appalachian Trail later crossed the bridge as part of its long route.
That creates another beautiful transportation collision.
A structure designed for automobiles carries hikers walking one of America's most famous long-distance footpaths.
Modernity and escape from modernity share the same deck.
For locals driving across, the bridge can become a normal piece of Route 6 and 202.
Historically, see it as evidence of a radical change in leisure.
Early park visitors depended on railroads and ferries.
The twentieth-century visitor increasingly arrived by private car.
The landscape did not move closer to New York.
Transportation made it feel closer.