to the west, which also connected Queens to the Bronx. Real estate speculators predicted that the new bridge would also encourage development in the Bronx. New residential units in the Bronx were being planned before construction on the bridge itself even started. The RPA had also recommended that the Whitestone Bridge have rail connections, or space for such connections, but Moses ultimately did not include any provisions for rail connections on the bridge. Approval and land acquisition In 1936, governor Herbert H. Lehman signed a bill that authorized the construction of the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, which would connect Queens and the Bronx. The following January, Lehman signed a bill that allowed the TBA to issue bonds for the construction of the bridge. In February 1937, TBA chief engineer Othmar Ammann announced that the bridge was both "practical and necessary". Allston Dana was also hired as the engineer of design. The same month, approval of a suspension span between Ferry Point and Whitestone was given by Harry Hines Woodring, the United States Secretary of War. Around the same time, the TBA made plans to issue bonds to fund the construction of the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge. Moses recommended the TBA and the city should each be responsible for half of the bridge's $17.5 million cost. In April 1937, the TBA started selling $25 million in bonds to fund the bridge's construction. A $1.13 million contract for the construction of the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge's towers was awarded in June 1937 to the American Bridge Company, which had beaten the only other competitor, Bethlehem Steel. The same month, the city started buying property that was in the right-of-way for the Whitestone Bridge and Parkway; shortly afterward, the rights-of-way for the bridge and parkway were legally designated. All of the TBA bonds had been sold by July 1937. The next month, the city had started evicting residents in the path of the bridge's approaches, and officials notified seventeen households in Whitestone that they had ten days to find new housing. This raised controversy because of the short notice given, but Moses said such measures were necessary to complete the bridge on schedule. In addition, land in Ferry Point was taken for the construction of the bridge; this land would become Ferry Point Park upon the completion of the bridge. Construction A groundbreaking ceremony was held in November 1937, when the Mayor of New York City, Fiorello H. La