The New Tappan Zee Bridge (Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge ) – New York, New York - Atlas Obscura

The New Tappan Zee Bridge (Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge )

The large, sleek new twin cable-stayed bridge over the lower Hudson River 

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Sixty-two years ago, the Tappan Zee Bridge opened to traffic over its namesake stretch of the Hudson River. Since then, increased traffic has made the bridge dangerous, and what amounts to two new bridges are almost ready to replace it.

The New Tappan Zee Bridge, to be named the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge after the current New York governor’s father, is a state-of-the-art twin cable-stayed bridge with eight traffic lanes and four emergency lanes. At 183 feet wide it is one of the widest of its kind in the world. It will have dedicated bus lanes, bike/pedestrian paths, and the possibility for the addition of a rail line.

Its signature design features are the 419-foot outwardly leaning towers that hold the cables, which are not only visually striking but enhance the structural integrity of the bridge, which is essentially two bridges side by side. Created by a consortium of world-renowned designers and engineers, it is made of 14 miles of cable, 300,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 220 million pounds of steel.

The original bridge connected Rockland and Westchester Counties, and helped dramatically grow the population in that area by increasing accessibility, which is why the new bridge is necessary. Whereas the original was built cheaply following the Korean War to last for only fifty years, the new bridge is built to last for a hundred.

Parts of the old bridge will be sent upstate for use in other bridge projects. The first half of the New Tappan Zee will open August 25th, 2017, with the other half scheduled for April 2018.