The facades were postponed in 1929 during the Great Depression, when rising material costs made such a plan unfeasible. The entire weight of the bridge was supported by the steel structure, and the purely decorative masonry could be added later. Even though the steel towers had been left that way for cost reasons, aesthetic critiques of the bare steel towers were favorable. Several groups, such as the American Institute of Steel Construction, believed that covering the steel framework with masonry would be both misleading and "fundamentally ugly".