Meanwhile, Ammann became chief engineer of the Port of New York Authority (now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey), which was created in 1921 to oversee commerce and transport along the lower Hudson River and New York Bay. He had disassociated himself from Lindenthal's proposal by 1923, conducting his own studies on the feasibility of a bridge from 178th Street in Fort Washington, Manhattan, to Fort Lee in New Jersey. Ammann's advocacy for the Fort Washington–Fort Lee bridge gained support from both New Jersey governor George Silzer and New York governor Alfred E. Smith by mid-1923. In May 1924, Colonel Frederick Stuart Greene, the New York Superintendent of Public Works, announced a plan to construct a suspension bridge between Fort Lee and Fort Washington. At that location, both sides were surrounded by steep cliffs (The Palisades on the New Jersey side, and Washington Heights on the New York side). Thus, it was possible to build the bridge without either impeding maritime traffic or requiring lengthy approach ramps from ground level.