NEW BOOK!

Steel and Grit: A History of the Lower Hudson Valley and the Bear Mountain Bridge

by Barbara Hansen Call

Barbara's new book on the Bear Mountain Bridge will be released November 17, 2025. Barbara used Society resources and has published several times in the Society Journal. PREORDER NOW!

Straddling the Hudson where the river begins to narrow and twist in its journey, the Bear Mountain Bridge stands as an elegant memorial to the shifting industrial culture of the United States between the two world wars. Once the longest suspension bridge in the world and meant to serve as a necessary industrial connector while preserving the region's scenic beauty, the construction of the Bear Mountain Bridge was a titanic undertaking that dramatically reshaped the Hudson Valley.

Steel & Grit tells the story of the valley at a moment of great change. Drawing on a trove of archival materials, Ms. Call traces the history of the valley through the formation of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the role of Gilded Age icons such as E. H. Harriman and financier J. P. Morgan, as well as the New Jersey Women's Clubs that were pivotal in lobbying the final legislative efforts that created the PIPC.

Steel & Grit examines the importance of the Bear Mountain Bridge, both as a depiction of twentieth-century American ingenuity and as an enduring symbol of the Hudson Valley and a testament to those responsible for its existence.