What brought me here today essentially is not a bridge. I wanted to see some of the progress of the new Tappan Zee bridge. I hope to come down here regularly until it's completed.
After the George Washington bridge, the Tappan Zee receives the most traffic with over 100,000 crossing it on a daily basis. It crosses the widest part of the river and at almost 3 miles in length, it is NY's longest bridge. I often wonder if a tunnel made more sense here.
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| April 24, 2016 |
The Tappan Zee was built in the 1950s with only a 50 year age limit. After years and much wrangling among our corrupt politicians, the new bridge is finally being built and seems to be progressing along just nicely. The old cantilever bridge is being replaced with a more modern looking cable stayed bridge.
There are efforts to name the bridge after Pete Seeger, but as far as I can tell the name will be the New Tappan Zee Bridge. I did find some interesting facts about the bridge while in Nyack. There will be two spans with four lanes of traffic on each. The span to Rockland will be completed by the end of the year. There will also be a lane dedicated to pedestrians. Supposedly there will be a lane dedicated to commuter buses. Unfortunately there will be no train connecting Rockland to Metro North. When completed the New Tappan Zee will be the widest bridge in the world.
Hard to believe with only eight lanes it will be the world's widest bridge. A rain line would have been nice. There is a Bridge in D.C. that has something like 15 lanes.
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