Daily News from New York, New York • 462

Da Areu-s, Sunday, April 29, 1979 Mayor LaGuardia with his famous black fedora. 1 'if -is 4,1 v. i i Tjff'iKW News photo by Tom Cunningham. IT is Bp By JOHN LEWIS The stark simplicity of the Whitestone is evident in this view from the Queens side. kN APRIL 29, 1939, a feisty Mayor Othmar H.

Ammann, who encircled the city with his bridges. Fiorello LaGuardia. wearing a wide-brimmed black hat, mount Via? Motorists who use the bridge will receive a commemorative key ring. The Bronx-Whitestone span was designed by Swiss-born engineer Othmar Ammann under the direction of the authority. Ammann, who died in 1965, helped build the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and was the chief designer of the Triborough, Hellgate, George Washington, Throgs Neck and Ver-razano-Narrows bridges.

"Architecturally the finest" In the eyes of many, however, the Bronx-Whitestone bridge was the most beautiful. 'Moses said: "Architecturally, it is the finest bridge of them all, without comparison in cleanliness and simplicity of design, in lightness and absence of pretentious ornamentation." In the first year that it was opened, 4.17 million vehicles crossed the bridge. By 1960, the number of vehicles jumped to 17.292 million and ten years later the total had reached a staggering 33.196 million. Opening day tolls on the bridge were as follows: passenger automobiles, taxi-cabs, ambulances, hearses, horse-drawn vehicles and two-axle trucks, capacity two tons or under, 25 cents; buses, 50 cents; and four-axle trucks, tractors or cars with trailers, 75 cents. Motorcycles were 15 cents and bicycles 10 cents.

Today the tolls range from 75 cents for cars and motorcycles to $4.50 for six-axle vehicles, plus 75 cents for each additional axle. Bicycles are not allowed on the bridge. From April 29, 1939 to Feb. 29, 1979, the bridge carried 858.875 million vehicles. The busiest day was June 19, 1960, Fathers Day, when 133,087 vehicles used the bridge to cross the East River.

On Jan. 11, 1961. the Throes Neck ed a platform in the Bronx and officially opened what was then the fourth largest suspension bridge in the world the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge. It was an age of achievement, a time when things got done. The bridge, with a span of 2,300 feet linking the Bronx and Queens, was completed in the remarkable time of 23 months and opened 60 days ahead of time.

The 377-f oot-high towers took only 18 days to erect, a record accomplishment at the time. As LaGuardia spoke, his words were prophetic: "Just another opening," he started softly. "And as soon as we leave here, we'll start planning for the next big project. Any time New York stops growing it will be a sad He chided fellow politicians who opposed spending $17,785 million for construction of the bridge. "We're paying no attention to political whiners now," he said.

"People accuse the mayor of building for the future. Why, bless their ignorant hearts, what would they have him do? It must be very irritating for them to see public funds spent honestly. Nothing sticking the fingers, as of old." Carey, Koch, Moses coming To mark the occasion. Gov. Carey, Major Koch, former Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority chairman Robert Moses, and current chairman Harold Fisher, are expected to be present at 11 a.m.

today in the Bronx toll plaza of the. bridge to recreate the ribbon-cutting ceremony that took place 40 years ago. Bridge, located about one mile to the east, opened and relieved some of the traffic. But by 1978, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge was carrying 31.086 million vehicles annually and the Throgs Neck, 33.917 million raising the specter of the need for still another bridge. George Schoephfer, executive officer and chief engineer of the authority, said that the simplicity of the design of the Bronx-Whitestone span enabled workers to put it up in such a short time.

"I don't know really why the job was done so fast," he said. "Perhaps it was the Depression which made people anxious to work. The design -work done ahead of time made it possible to put the pieces of the towers together in only 18 days." Now would Cost $120M By comparison, a bridge its size would take about four years to buijd now and would cost about $120 million, he said. Since it first opened the bridge has reacted to winds by moving vertically (up and down). In that area of the city, Schoephfer pointed out, winds are particularly heavy.

In the 1940s, following the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington, diagonal stays were installed in the Bronx-Whitestone bridge to check tiie vertical oscillation. Masterbuitder Robert Moses when he visited the Whitestone in 1977. On Nov. 13, 1968, winds of up to 80 mph caused the bridge to bounce up and down as much as 10 inches. The vibrations panicked about 30 motorists wh3 abandoned their cars and fled.

The bridge was closed for five hours while engineers inspected the structure and the abandoned cars were towed away. There were other incidents, explosions. But after 40 years, the Bronx Whitestone Bridge is very much alive and welL.