George Washington Bridge opening, 1931

The Port of New York Authority started construction on September 21, 1927, with Othmar Ammann as chief engineer. The ASCE Metropolitan Section says test borings for the site were made at 178th Street in 1925, and that the bridge got its name on April 23, 1931. Wikipedia says it was ceremonially dedicated on October 24, 1931 and opened to traffic the next day. The ASCE notes that its 3,500-foot main span nearly doubled the length of the Ambassador Bridge, then the longest, and that cost-cutting in the Depression left the steel towers exposed instead of covered in concrete and granite as architect Cass Gilbert had planned. In 1947 Le Corbusier called it the most beautiful bridge in the world, according to the ASCE.