Mid-Hudson Bridge

Opened 25 August, 1930

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Mid-Hudson Bridge, ceremoniously named after the Governor of New York and the President of the United States, originally opened as a two lane bridge. On March 17, 1933, the newly formed New York State Bridge Authority, NYSBA, acquired the bridge from the New York State Department of Public Works. The east approach to the bridge was widened in 1949. The new approach was constructed to help the flow of rush hour and weekend traffic move more efficiently.

The New York State Legislature authorized a $1.5 million dollar loan to NYSBA in 1965 in order to build a new highway approach and toll plaza on the western side of the bridge.

By the summer of 1983, testing of a new traffic flow system had shown that the normally two-lane roadway needed to be converted to three lanes during rush hour, with two-lanes supporting the heaviest traffic volume. A deck replacement project took place during 1987-1988, replacing the 57 year old roadway with minimal traffic interruptions.

In the summer of 2001, necklace lighting was installed on the bridge. Designed by Baker Engineering, the system uses energy efficient LED fixtures. Each fixture is powered by a patented technology which uses multi-colored LEDs and a microprocessor to create over 16.7 million colors and color changing effects. 

A unique plan using the Mid-Hudson Bridge as a musical instrument was realized in 2009 by Joseph Bertolozzi. Bridge Music was created by sampling the sounds of bridge’s surfaces (guard rails, girders, etc.) with various mallets and using those sounds to compose new works, making the Mid-Hudson Bridge the largest percussion instrument in the world. The music contains no other tones than those of the bridge itself.

In 2022, tolling for the bridge was converted from toll collectors in toll booths to All Electronic Tolling thereby eliminating the toll plazas.