The Last Lock

I've been putting off this post.  Perhaps because I never really like it when things end.  Perhaps because I've been awfully busy keeping the two kitties from killing each other.

The last Saturday evening in August, Lynn and I headed up to the George Washington Bridge to find the last lock in the Key to the City project.  We had almost stopped by this particular lock after running around the Bronx, but in the end were too tired to continue and really wanted to head up to the GWB around sunset.  So it was left as the last thing on our list.

The bridge itself is quite remarkable in its own right, built between 1927 and 1931 and becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world for some time.  With 14 lanes of traffic (two levels), it's still the bridge with the highest vehicular capacity in the world.  The chief engineer, Othmar Ammann, built six major bridges in and around NYC, including the Verrazano, Whitestone, and Triborough bridges, which I cross often going to and from Brooklyn.  The architect of the GWB was Cass Gilbert, who I always seem to run into.  Gilbert had originally planned to encase the towers of the GWB in granite with his favorite Beaux Arts flourishes, and even put a restaurant at the top of the east tower.  However, the Great Depression delayed these plans, and eventually everyone came to love the now-iconic "bare bones" steel lattice.  They do make the bridge immediately distinguishable from any other suspension bridge.

When we arrived in the neighborhood of Washington Heights on the Manhattan side of the bridge the sun had already sunk below the horizon, but the twilight colors still stretched across the sky.  We walked up the ramp onto the pedestrian walkway and came to a gate left wide open.  This gate held the lock we were looking for at one time, but I'd heard long ago that the lock was missing and the gate was left open until midnight anyway.  But we weren't really there to open anything this time.  We were there to enjoy a beautiful view of New York from high up on the span of the bridge and the wonderful summer evening air.

It seemed natural that the end of our month-long trek to every corner of NYC should end here, with a beautiful skyline vista and a sunset to see it off.  It seemed natural that this grand tour of my home should end on the bridge that brought me in when I moved here permanently.  In many ways, this whole project has re-acquainted me with the city.  It's broken down my routine destinations and habits in favor of places I'd never been, or sometimes had even heard of.  We need that every once in a while: the chance to see our home from a different perspective and find new appreciation and astonishment in what's been there all along.

I'm grateful for the journey this project provided, and even more so for the people who shared it along the way.  Thanks Julie, for bestowing the key upon me in Times Square.  Thanks Lynn, Andy, Sandy, Sarah, and Julie (different Julie) for coming along for the ride.  And thanks Julie (yet a third), Tom, and Rachel for being game to run around the city with strangers and having a great time.


View Key to the City - GWB - 8/28/10 in a larger map