Robert L. Cahill (New York State Bridge Authority Chairman) and Satoshi Oishi (ASCE Met Section President) stand before the bronze plaque marking the designation of the Bear Mountain Bridge as a Metropolitan Area Historic Civil Engineering Monument.

At a brief ceremony outside the bridge office in Fort Montgomery, New York State Bridge Authority Chairman Robert L. Cahill accepted the designation from ASCE Met Section President Satoshi Oishi and unveiled a bronze plaque marking the occasion.

The Bear Mountain Bridge opened to the public on November 27, 1924 and was at the time of completion, the largest suspension bridge in the world with a center span of 1,632 feet. It was also the first highway bridge across the Hudson River south of Albany, New York. The unique topography of the site enabled the main cables of the bridge to be anchored directly into rock formations on either side of the river.

The bridge was built and operated until 1940 by the Bear Mountain Hudson River Bridge Company, a private corporation. In that year it was acquired by the Bridge Authority, which subsequently undertook several significant reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The bridge is located approximately four miles north of Peekskill and links four different counties. On the western side tolls are collected in Orange County just a few feet northwest of Rockland County, in which the bridge's western tower stands. The eastern tower is in Westchester County just a few feet south of where the northeastern approach crosses into Putnam County.