We need to rename the George Washington Bridge. No, the other one!

When people think about the George Washington Bridge, they first think about the large steel arched bridge crossing the Hudson River. This bridge was an engineering marvel designed by Othmar Ammann and is today the most-used bridge in America. It's now known worldwide as a famous landmark. Its fame is so immense that it unfortunately overshadows its older brother across the island. The Harlem River’s George Washington Bridge is a much older bridge designed by Charles C. Schneider and Wilhelm Hildenbrand. This lovely bridge has been serving New Yorkers since it opened in 1888 and connects Washington Heights in Manhattan with Morris Heights in the Bronx. First as a walking and carriage bridge then as a light rail bridge to now in its unfortunate form.  

Southern walkway of the bridge

Currently, the bridge is kept in a state of neglect, since Robert Mosses connected it to the cross Bronx the bridge has been left to rot. A bridge that was once meant for walking now only has narrow walkways full of piles of trash, overgrown foliage, and so many dead rats that walking the bridge causes the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end. A bridge once designed to hold at most the weight of horse-drawn carriages now shakes violently every time a truck pass by. Many of the bridge's original details have been removed and the viewing balconies have been blocked off after a suicide attempt a few years ago. Now these sections sit abandoned filled with trash and rat nests. The only attention that the bridge has seen in recent years is the bike and bus upgrade brought in by petition and activism from the community.

Proposed bike & bus ways

These bike paths while needed as many people walking across the bridge will no longer have to make way for bikes. But many of the other safety concerns such as the shaking or the horrendous state of the walkway. 

So, what is the solution to this problem? That of course would be fixing many of the problems with the bridge. But to do that we need to pay enough attention to the old bridge. And with the name it has, it will always be overshadowed by its larger sibling across the island. So let's rename it. One idea would be to pay tribute to NYC history and the Dominican heritage of the people who live in both neighborhoods on either side of the bridge. So why not rename it the Juan Rodrigez Bridge? Juan Rodrigez was an Afro-Latino scholar from Santo Domingo who helped with translation during negotiations between the Dutch and the natives when purchasing Manhattan. He then stayed and lived with the natives. Another idea would be the Martha Washington Bridge to partner it with the George Washington Bridge. It could also easily be called the Heights Bridge from the two neighborhoods that connect Washington Heights and Morris Heights.  Either way, this change would bring more attention to this forgotten gem and also help distinguish it from its more famous cousin. 

Washington Bridge Street Improvement Project. (2022, November 2). NYC.gov. https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/washington-bridge-bx-cb4-nov2022.pdf