Recently, we asked readers what they had always wanted to know about New York City. Mr. Loring, an urban planner in Manhattan who has friends in New Jersey, questioned why the George Washington Bridge was Manhattan’s only West Side river crossing built with bicyclists and pedestrians in mind.

[What have you always wondered about New York City?]

I spoke to several people in hopes of answering Mr. Loring’s question, and they all named one person to talk to: Samuel I. Schwartz, a transportation engineer who once worked as the city’s traffic commissioner.

Mr. Schwartz said there was talk of building bridges between Manhattan and New Jersey as early as the 1880s. The George Washington Bridge was proposed near West 57th Street in the 1920s, according to Mr. Schwartz.

But officials opted instead for a span connecting Upper Manhattan and Fort Lee, N.J. It opened in 1931.