The Tappan Zee Bridge

We live in Piermont, New York.

Piermont's on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 20 miles north of Manhattan. Most New Yorkers have never heard of Piermont – or even Rockland County in which Piermont resides – but they're typically familiar with Westchester County, which is three miles across the water.

That three miles is the widest section of the Hudson. It's so wide that Dutch settlers named area this Tappan Zee. Tappan for the indigenous people who originally lived here. Zee is the Dutch word for sea.

The Sea of Tappan.

(Emma would like me to mention here that she once sailed across the the Tappan Zee solo.)

Just north of Piermont is a bridge that crosses the Hudson.

"But why build a bridge at the widest spot of the river?" you might ask. Great question!

Every bridge and tunnel across the Hudson within 21 miles of the Statue of Liberty falls under the jurisdiction of the Port Authority of New York (and New Jersey) which was set up in the 1920s to handle the prickly matter of "who gets the tolls from a river crossing that starts in one state and ends in the other?"

It's a bit inconvenient that 25 miles north of the Statue of Liberty happened to be the widest part of the river, but the topographical challenges were easier to deal with than the political ones.

The original bridge was built in 1952 and was named The Tappan Zee Bridge. In 1994 the sitting Governor – Mario M Cuomo – renamed the bridge after one of his predecessors. It officially became The Governor Malcom Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge. But so far as I can tell no one ever actually called it that.

It was always just called The Tappan Zee Bridge.

In 2017, the original bridge, which had become notorious for its traffic jams, was replaced with a much bigger bridge. Once again, the sitting governor – Andrew Cuomo – decided to name it after a predecessor. It became the Governor Mario M Cuomo Bridge.

But so fas as I can tell, no one ever actually calls it that. It's just the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Anyway, the new bridge is beautiful. Here's some photos of it.