Othmar Ammann was born in Switzerland in 1879. He was educated as a civil engineer and came to America at the age of 25 to make his mark in bridge design. He was hired by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey one year later.
His mentor, Gustav Lindenthal, had long dreamed of a bridge spanning the Hudson River. Lindenthal’s plan was a massive project which would cost more than $2 billion in today’s dollars. Othmar had another simple plan. When Othmar’s plan was accepted, he and his mentor had a falling out. The resultant bridge, which we now call the George Washington Bridge, was completed six months ahead of schedule and under budget.
The George Washington Bridge transformed an engineering work into an aesthetic marvel. (see the photo). The George Washington Bridge led the builder Robert Moses to commission Othman to design six more bridges. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (see photo) was at the time, the largest suspended span in the world. It was also a thing of beauty.
The George Washington Bridge 
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge 
In 1939, at the age of 60, Othmar retired from the Port Authority and decided to form his own engineering company to have something to do. And for the next 26 years, you might say he was active. He saw the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, a structure whose design came from his recommendation.
In those 26 years, he was active in the design of
- Dulles Airport (Washington DC)
- The Civic Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
- Addis Ababa Airport (Ethiopia)
- The nation’s highway system (Iran)
- A 600-foot radio telescope for the U.S. Navy
- The Walt Whitman Bridge (Philadelphia, PA)
- The Throgs Neck Bridge (New York)
- Turnpikes (Connecticut/New Jersey)
Othmar, like many others, contributed his wisdom, knowledge, and skills to vital projects at an age when our society considers a person “washed up”. We as a nation need to rethink our concept of retirement and find new ways to take advantage of a lifetime of learning in our seniors.
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“Your inside person doesn’t age. Your indie person is soul, is heart, in the eternal now, the ageless, the old, the young, all the ages you’ve ever been.” – Anne Lamott