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The 1960 Legislature appropriated $4.5 million to begin the work, and additional |
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| interest-free loans from the state government allowed the Bridge Authority to continue moving forward on the bridge. | ||
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The bridge was built using riveting to hold the massive steel beams and plates together. Each rivet came from the factory with a cap on one end of the shaft. The rivets, red hot, would be slid through two pieces of steel by one man. On the other side, another worker with a riveting hammer would pound the red-hot metal into a mushroom shape while the rivet was held in place, so there were now two caps on the rivet, with the steel between. As the rivets cooled, they would contract and bring the steel tightly together. |
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| The piers for the bridge were constructed using caissons. Caissons are large concrete blocks shaped like upside-down U's. They were set into the riverbed and the driven down to bedrock using the weight of masonry on top as men guided machines to dig out the silt below. The deepest caisson on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge was set 163 feet below sea level. | ||
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On November 2, 1963 the Beacon-Newburgh Bridge |
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| was opened officially as Gov. Rockefeller, center, cut the gold ribbon while three members of the New York State Bridge Authority and the State Superintendent of Public Works looked on. |
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