Also known as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Bridge, this is a parallel wire cable suspension bridge with suspended side spans which connects the city of Poughkeepsie, New York with the town of Highland, New York, crossing over the Hudson River estuary (the portion below Troy, New York) close to the mid-point of the estuary. The bridge was designed by a firm called Modjeski & Moran and built by several contractors: The American Bridge Company, Blackslee-Rollins Corp, David Schoentag Inc., and Scott Bros. Construction. The diameter of the main cable is 16-3/4 inches, and consists of 6,080 individual wires.
The overall length of the bridge is 3,000 feet, with the main span stretching 1,500 feet in length. There are two towers of acclaimed, gothic-inspired architecture. Each rises 135 feet above the river's surface, and the highpoint of the clearance space between the bridge and the water is 135 feet. Opened on August 25, 1930, the bridge cost $5,900,000 in 1930 dollars, with an estimated value of $174,616,000 in 1998 dollars.
Originally the bridge was built for the New York State Department of Public Works, but in 1933, pursuant to a reorganization of the political system in New York State government, control of the bridge was ceded to the newly-formed NY State Bridge Authority. The construction of the bridge was completed under the term of NYS Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, future President of the United States.
The Mid-Hudson Bridge currently has three lanes total to serve traffic in both directions, and during rush hour into and out of the city, the middle lane is allocated as either eastbound or westbound as appropriate. The bridge is a toll bridge, and the rate of the toll is collected for eastbound traffic only. In 2002, the toll was $1.00 for passenger cars. The Mid-Hudson Bridge was fully equipped to use the EZPass system for New York State in the late 1990's.