Bear Mountain Bridge

The Bear Mountain Bridge, ceremonially named the Purple Heart Veterans Memorial Bridge, is a toll suspension bridge in New York State. It carries US 6 and US 202 across the Hudson River between Bear Mountain State Park in Orange County, less than a half mile north of the Rockland County line, and Cortlandt in Westchester County, less than a half mile south of the Putnam County line. At completion in 1924 it was longest suspension bridge in the world until this record was surpassed 19 months later by the Benjamin Franklin Bridge between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey. The Bear Mountain Bridge has an unconventional structure among suspension bridges; though the main span hangs from cables in the usual manner, the side spans leading to the approaches are suspended by their truss work, drawing no support from the cables above, similar to the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City.

The span enables connections between the Palisades Interstate Parkway and US 9W on the west bank near Bear Mountain and NY 9D on the east bank as well as US 9 and the Bear Mountain Parkway farther east. It also carries the Appalachian Trail and New York State Bicycle Route 9 across the Hudson.

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