2. There Was an Idea to Put a Restaurant at the Top of the George Washington Bridge

Image via Six Bridges: The Legacy of Othmar H. Ammann by the Office of Cass Gilbert

Those who know New York City well are aware that there was a real craze for rooftop observation decks–from the Chrysler Building, to Empire State Building to Rockefeller Center. For the design of the George Washington Bridge, architect Cass Gilbert left engineer Othmar Ammann mostly to his own devices, but Gilbert did urge him to include elevators to the tops of the towers in order to utilize them as observation decks. In one set of drawings, Gilbert placed a restaurant with a boat drop-off in the New York tower.