The George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal or George Washington Bridge Bus Station is a commuter bus terminal located at the east end of the George Washington Bridge in Washington Heights, Manhattan. The station is built over the Trans-Manhattan Expressway (Interstate 95) between 178th and 179th Streets and Fort Washington and Wadsworth Avenues and features direct bus ramps on and off the upper level of the bridge. The complex includes the 175th Street station of the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at Fort Washington Avenue and 175th Street.
Architecture
The building was designed by renowned engineer Pier Luigi Nervi and is one of only a few buildings he designed outside of Italy. It opened January 13, 1963. The building is constructed of huge steel-reinforced concrete trusses, fourteen of which are cantilevered from supports in the median of the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, which it straddles. The building contains murals as well as busts of George Washington and Othmar Amman, the civil engineer who designed the bridge. The building received the 1963 Concrete Industry Board’s Award. [1]
Bus service
As of 2007, the following bus companies serve the terminal:[2]
- Coach USA subsidiaries: Rockland Coaches and Short Line Bus
- Spanish Bus Transportation Corporation: express into New Jersey
- Vanessa Express
There was formerly long distance bus service to Florida, operated by Greyhound Lines.[citation needed]
- Local buses stop at a lower level and on the streets outside the station. Local service includes:
The first floor of the bus terminal has shops and a waiting area. There is also an New York City Off-track betting parlor located on the first floor.
The bus station is owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. According to the Port Authority's website, on a typical weekday, approximately 17,000 passengers on about 950 buses use the bus station. In 2007, the bus station handled approximately 5,000,000 passengers on about 300,0000 buses. The subway station, operated by the New York City Transit Authority, was part of the original A line which opened in 1932.
Accessibility
Some portions of the terminal are wheelchair accessible, but many of the bus platforms are not. In addition, the M4 bus provides wheelchair accessible service to Fort Tryon Park, continuing inside the park to the Cloisters Museum when open.