George Washington Bridge Bus Station
George Washington Bridge Bus Station | |
|---|---|
View of the station from the southeast, 2018 | |
| General information | |
| Location | between Ft. Washington & Wadsworth Aves, and W. 178th & W. 179th Sts. Manhattan, New York City United States |
| Owned by | Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |
| Operated by | Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |
| Platforms | 21 gates (upper level) |
| Bus routes | NJ Transit Bus: 171, 175, 178, 181, 182, 186, 188 |
| Bus operators | See Bus Service below |
| Connections | New York City Subway: at 175th Street at 181st Street |
| Construction | |
| Accessible | Yes |
| Architect | Pier Luigi Nervi |
| Other information | |
| Website | GWBBS |
| History | |
| Opened | January 17, 1963 |
| Rebuilt | 2013–2017 renovations |
| Passengers | |
| 2015 | 6.9 million |
The George Washington Bridge Bus Station is a commuter bus terminal at the east end of the George Washington Bridge in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The bus station is owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). On a typical weekday, approximately 20,000 passengers on about 1,000 buses use the station.
The building is an example of mid-century urban renewal and structural expressionism. Designed by the renowned Italian architect-engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, the new bus station was hailed as a robust tour-de-force of infrastructure ingenuity by leading critics of the day. While later noting the station's neglect from decades of deferred maintenance, the architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable heralded the design of the station as "a work of the first rank that demonstrates the art and science of reinforced concrete construction at its 20th-century highpoint, in the hands of one of its greatest masters."
The terminal was first proposed in 1955, following earlier attempts to construct a bus station at the George Washington Bridge's eastern end. The Port Authority hired Nervi to design the terminal in early 1960, and it opened on January 17, 1963. In its early years, the George Washington Bridge Bus Station was underused compared to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. A major renovation, including an expansion of retail space from 30,000 to 120,000 square feet (3,000 to 11,000 m2), was announced in 2008; the project began in late 2013 and was expected to cost more than US$183 million. The renovated station reopened on May 16, 2017, two years behind schedule, $17 million over budget, and still unfinished.