In 1929, the Regional Plan Association proposed a bridge from the Bronx to northern Queens to allow motorists from upstate New York and New England to reach Queens and Long Island without traveling through the traffic-ridden communities of western Queens. On February 25, 1930, Robert Moses proposed a Ferry Point Park-Whitestone Bridge as a part of his Belt Parkway system around Brooklyn and Queens. The New York Legislature approved Moses’ plan in April 1937.
Designer Othmar Ammann had several plans for the bridge that would keep construction on its tight schedule. The two 377-foot (115 m) towers were constructed in a short 18 days and were the first to have no diagonal cross bracing. Unlike other suspension bridges, the Whitestone Bridge did not have a stiffening truss system. Instead, 11-foot (3.4 m) I-beam girders gave the bridge an art deco streamlined appearance.
The Bronx–Whitestone Bridge opened on April 29, 1939, in festivities led by then-Mayor of New York City Fiorello H. La Guardia. The bridge featured pedestrian walkways as well as four lanes of vehicular traffic, which carried 17,000 vehicles per day during the year 1940. The toll was 25 cents. The 2,300-foot (700 m) center span was the fourth longest in the world at the opening.
