On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1924, the Bear Mountain Bridge was opened to the general public after being formally dedicated the day prior, with a crush of cars lined up to be first across. It was a groundbreaking engineering achievement for its time, being the first vehicular bridge over the Hudson River south of Albany and the first suspension bridge with a concrete deck. For a brief period, it also held the title of “bridge with the longest suspended span in the world.”