The George Washington Bridge measures long and has a main span of . Accounting for the height of the lower deck, the bridge stretches above mean high water at its center, and above mean high water under the New York anchorage. The bridge's main span was the longest main bridge span in the world at the time of its opening in 1931, and was nearly double the of the previous record holder, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. It held this title until the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. The completion of the George Washington Bridge proved that longer suspension bridges were both physically and economically feasible. Prior to the bridge's construction, engineers had believed that a suspension span's length was a large indicator of a suspension bridge's economic feasibility.