Architecture

Plans for a crossing between the city of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan dated back to the early 1800's. When the East River crossing was planned, Brooklyn, with about 400,000 residents, was still more rural than urban. The city of New York - which at the time consisted only of Manhattan - had twice as many residents, and the bridge was seen as a solution to overcrowding in Manhattan while spurring development in Brooklyn. The bridge would enable people and goods to cross the East River quickly, regardless of weather conditions.

At the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street stands the former Manufacturers Trust Co. branch, now JPMorgan Chase, from 1954. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft, it was Fifth Avenue's first glass edifice.

Chief designer of the building was Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, who is also responsible for the famous Lever House on Park Avenue. 

The factory was originally built in 1857, when the company of Havemeyer, Townsend and Company was founded. William and Frederick Havemeyer, the founding Havemeyers from whom the company got its name, had previously been employees of Seaman and Company, which had been the very first sugar processing company in New York, opening its first sugar boiler on Pine St in 1799.

The six-lane George Washington Bridge was completed on October 25, 1931, eight months ahead of schedule, at a cost of $59 million and 12 lives. First named the "Hudson River Bridge," other names for the bridge had been considered, including the "Palisades Bridge," "Fort Lee Bridge," "Columbus Bridge" and "Verrazano Bridge," before the Port Authority decided upon the "George Washington Memorial Bridge" in 1930. Later, the name was shortened to "George Washington Bridge."