Steel and Grit: A History of the Lower Hudson Valley and the Bear Mountain Bridge

Straddling the Hudson where the river begins to narrow and twist in its journey, the Bear Mountain Bridge stands as an elegant memorial to the shifting industrial culture of the United States between the two world wars. Once the longest suspension bridge in the world and meant to serve as a necessary industrial connector while preserving the region’s scenic beauty, the Bear Mountain Bridge was a titanic undertaking that dramatically reshaped the Hudson Valley. Steel and Grit chronicles the story of the valley at a moment of great change.

Drawing on a trove of archival materials, Barbara Hansen Cali traces the Bear Mountain Bridge’s construction, from the selection of the land to the role of Gilded Age icons, such as E. H. Harriman and financier J. P. Morgan, the formation of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and the New Jersey women’s clubs that were pivotal to the final legislative efforts. Steel and Grit examines the importance of the Bear Mountain Bridge, both as a symbol of twentieth-century American ingenuity and as an enduring symbol of the Hudson Valley.

Barbara Hansen Cali is a Brooklyn-born amateur historian and retired management executive in commercial real estate and commercial construction industries. She was vice president of property management for the New Jersey Division of Reckson Associates. She is a member of the Orange County Historical Society and has published several articles in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society and The Westchester Historian.