**George Washington Bridge in New York, completed in 1931.** Library of Congress

“Building an ugly bridge is a crime!”

How the Swiss Othmar H. Ammann (1879–1965) built the most important bridges in New York, but remained unsuccessful in his home country.

Francesco Della Casa

Cantonal architect, Geneva

Othmar Ammann lived in an age when engineers and architects were more likely to wear a straw hat than a hard hat when visiting a construction site. In the eyes of many professional colleagues, the Zurich native was the greatest civil engineer of the 20th century.

**Othmar Ammann in front of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, around 1960.** KEYSTONE/AP PHOTO/Str

But he’s still relatively unknown in his country of origin. The hilly topography of Switzerland has always produced outstanding achievements in the field of bridge and tunnel construction. The rest of the work was done by the Eidgenössische Polytechnikum in Zurich, founded in 1854, which became the ETH Zurich in 1911. It was here that, in 1902, the young Othmar Ammann completed the training he had started eight years earlier at the Zurich Industrial School. One of his professors was Wilhelm Ritter, who in turn was the spiritual model for another renowned civil engineer who had received his diploma eight years earlier: Robert Maillart.

**Othmar Ammann during an internship at the Montreux-Berner Oberland-Bahn, around 1903.** ETH Zürich

**Othmar Ammann with a model of the George Washington Bridge, around 1925-1940.** ETH Zürich

The work of the pioneers of the Polytechnic at this time differed from that of other schools of engineering primarily in one respect – the important role of aesthetics in the design of their structures. Just like Maillart, Ammann always remained true to this philosophy, and it is largely thanks to his work that, in the planning of bridges, even greater emphasis is now placed on the idea of a ‘work of art’. Towards the end of his life he expressed it as follows: “When designing a bridge, the aesthetic impact is just as important as the technical details. Building an ugly bridge is a crime!”

**Ammann speaks at the inauguration of the Bayonne Bridge, November 14, 1931.** ETH Zürich

In the early days of his career Ammann decided to emigrate to the USA, where the boom in railway construction offered many opportunities for a young engineer. In 1912 he became assistant to Gustav Lindenthal in New York, and worked on the construction of the Hell Gate Bridge and the Sciotoville Bridge. But when in 1917 Lindenthal embarked on a project to design a bridge over the Hudson River with 12 railway tracks and 16 lanes for cars, Ammann had doubts about its feasibility. He decided instead to produce an alternative proposal for a road bridge. This plan was ultimately accepted, and established his reputation as a bridge builder. The George Washington Bridge is a suspension bridge with an enormous span length which, thanks to the innovative construction of the deck, is much lighter and more streamlined than other bridges existing at that time, but can still withstand winter gales. It opened in 1931 and was the first bridge to connect Manhattan Island with the mainland. Meanwhile, Ammann had already made significant progress with the planning of a magnificent steel arch bridge: the Bayonne Bridge was completed in 1932, and for 45 years held the record as the longest bridge of its type in the world. Even today, it is still one of the most elegant.

**Hell Gate Bridge in New York, completed in 1916.** Wikimedia / Rob Zand
Image 01 of 10

**Sciotoville Bridge in Sciotoville, Ohio, completed in 1916.** Wikimedia / Darrell Rudmann
Image 01 of 10

**Bayonne Bridge in New York, completed in 1931.** Wikimedia / Jim Henderson
Image 01 of 10

**Triborough Bridge in New York, completed in 1936.** Library of Congress
Image 01 of 10

**Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in New York, completed in 1939.** Wikimedia / Dav5nyc
Image 01 of 10

**Access to the Lincoln Tunnel in Manhattan, New York, completed in 1937.** National Archives
Image 01 of 10

**Inside the tube of the Lincoln Tunnel in New York, completed in 1937.** National Archives
Image 01 of 10

**Throgs Neck Bridge in New York, completed in 1961.** Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York
Image 01 of 10

**Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York, completed in 1964.** Wikimedia / Ajay Suresh
Image 01 of 10

In 1933, Ammann was appointed director of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. He worked closely with Robert Moses, the famous New York urban planner, and built the Triborough Bridge and the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, as well as the Lincoln Tunnel, for him. He was also involved as a consulting engineer in the design of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. In 1946 he relinquished his post to set up his own engineering firm with Charles S. Whitney. Ammann and Whitney built the final two of his six New York bridges – the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

**Construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in March 1964.** Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York

**Ammann during construction of the Verrazano-Narrows-Bridge in New York, around 1964.** ETH Zürich

Broadcast on the inauguration of the Verrazano-Narrows-Bridge, 1964. British Pathé / YouTube

Although he had received American citizenship in 1924, as an acclaimed bridge builder Amman clearly owed it to himself to maintain his relationship with his country of origin. Sadly, his efforts remained unsuccessful, at least on a professional level. In 1963 the engineering firm Ammann & Whitney presented a cable-stayed bridge for crossing the Lake Geneva basin. But like many before and after him, the project was rejected by the city planning commission, which was evidently unimpressed by the reputation of its USA-based compatriot. Ammann had three children with Lilly Selma Wehrli, to whom he had been married since 1905. After Lilly’s death in 1933 he embarked upon a second marriage, with Kläry Nötzli, widow of the specialist dam engineer Fred A. Nötzli, who had also emigrated to the United States. Othmar Ammann’s adopted country was generous with recognition. He was the recipient of numerous honours and awards, and his bronze bust – albeit without a straw hat – sits on high in the bus terminal at the George Washington Bridge.

Trailer for the film “Gateways to New York” (2019) about Othmar Ammann by Martin Witz. YouTube

More of: 20th / 21st century Economy Technology Persönlichkeiten Series

Further posts

The Battle of Kappel am Albis in 1531 ended in a resounding defeat for Zurich.

Andrej Abplanalp 11.10.2021

The Second War of Kappel

In 1531, two years after the legendary Milchsuppe (milk soup) incident, a battle took place at Kappel after all. The Protestants suffered a crushing defeat, and were forced to abandon their dreams of an exclusively Protestant Switzerland.

The Estonian National Museum is located on a former Soviet military airport.

Hibou Pèlerin 08.10.2021

A runway into the future

The new building of the Estonian National Museum, opened in 2016, is spectacular in every way. The building reveals a lot about the eventful history and the present day self-image of the smallest of the Baltic countries.

The idyll is deceptive. In 1896, an ex-mercenary murdered three people in Bärschwil in Solothurn.

Philipp Krauer 04.10.2021

The Bärschwil triple murder

A bloody slaying in Bärschwil in Solothurn laid bare the global scars left by colonial violence in the late 19th century.