The first Lake Champlain Bridge connecting Chimney Point and Crown Point was built from June 1928 to August 1929. It was dedicated on August 29, 1929, with 40,000 people in attendance. Vermont Governor John E. Weeks and New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, three years before his election as president, met at the center of the bridge. For 80 years, the bridge was a crucial link in the life and economy of the Champlain Valley, promoting tourism and tying the two sides of the lake together commercially and socially.