New Tappan Zee: A massive bridge project nears a milestone

Thanks to a supercrane that could lift a dozen Statues of Liberty at one time, a Hudson River crossing north of New York City is about to get a major upgrade, with the Aug. 25 partial opening of the $3.9 billion replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge.

By any stretch of the imagination, the project to replace the Gov. Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge — linking Westchester and Rockland counties across the Hudson north of New York City — has been big.

Make that massive.

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NEW TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE OPENING: FAQ

For starters, the bridge is 3.1 miles long.

The current bridge handles more than 138,000 cars and trucks on a typical day, from Big Apple commuters to long-haul truckers eager to bypass NYC and the perennial bottlenecks at the George Washington Bridge.

One span to replace it would be a big job. They’ve built two.

One will carry traffic west into Rockland (the northbound Thruway), the other traffic east into Westchester (the southbound Thruway). The northbound span will open to traffic late on Aug. 25.

The original cantilever bridge cost $80 million when it opened in 1955. It has a '50s look, like an Erector set children's toy of the age. The sleek new cable-stay bridge will set taxpayers back $3.9 billion.

The scale of the project boggles the mind.

• 14 miles of cable will hold up the center span over the vital Hudson shipping lane.

• 50 miles of concrete-filled foundation pilings will support the bridge.

• 300,000 cubic yards of concrete went into the project.

• 220 million pounds of steel were used.

A key to its completion is the use of the Left Coast Lifter supercrane, the LeBron James of cranes, which was built specifically for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project. It was renamed the "I Lift NY" crane when pressed into service on this project.

The new bridge came together in massive, prefabricated pieces floated down the Hudson River on barges and lifted in place by the supercrane. That technology sped up the construction schedule.

Once the new bridge opens fully, the supercrane will help demolish the old bridge.

Changing the name

Everything about the bridge was big. Even the controversy over its name.

Its "working title" was the redundant New New York Bridge.

Locals howled when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo convinced the New York Legislature to affix his father's name to the bridge: The Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

The Tappan Zee, critics pointed out, was a nod to a former governor, Malcolm Wilson, but it also described the wide stretch of the river where it was built. Dutch settlers named it “Tappan” for the region’s native inhabitants and “Zee” for sea: The Tappan Sea.

Others pushed for the bridge to bear the name of folk singer Pete Seeger, a longtime advocate for the Hudson, or Eleanor Roosevelt, to honor her life’s work. But when traffic begins to flow onto the northbound span on Aug. 25, cars will be crossing the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge into Rockland.

Since the footprints of the new and old bridges overlap at the landing in South Nyack, workers will need to demolish part of the old bridge to make way for the new.

Starting this fall, eight lanes of traffic — four in each direction — will travel over the northern span. Then, at some point next year, the second span will open and north and south traffic will have their own crossings.

Rockland residents had pushed for part of the old bridge to remain, as a public pier out into the river.

Instead, the northern span of the Cuomo Bridge will have six viewing platforms, or “belvederes,” with commanding north-facing views of Nyack, the Palisades, the Hudson and Sleepy Hollow country.

Changing the game

The Tappan Zee Bridge was a game-changer for the region. When it opened in 1955, Rockland County was largely sleepy farm country, with more than 500 farms of varying sizes. Within five years, the Palisades Interstate Parkway created a north-south thoroughfare, making a New York City commute possible.

In 1950, the U.S. Census put Rockland’s population at 89,276. By 1960, it had jumped 53 percent, to 136,803. By 2016, that number had reached 326,780.

The Tappan Zee changed Westchester by linking it to the Thruway and parts west. It also made possible other major highways that would spur connections and commercial development: The Cross-Westchester Expressway (I-287) and the New England Thruway (I-95), both of which were only on drawing boards when the Tappan Zee opened.

The old bridge was built where it is too keep toll money from going to the Port Authority of New York, which would have had dibs on tolls from a bridge any farther south.

The bridge and Thruway proved a commercial lifeline.

In Rockland, access to the Thruway led to booming business on Route 303, where industrial and commercial buildings began to sprout. The building is still going on, with Golden Krust Bakery planning its world headquarters there.

In 1998, the 2-million-square-foot Palisades Center mall opened along the Thruway and managed to do what few things had been able to do: Draw Westchesterites across the bridge to shop.

More recently, in 2011, the 1.3-million-square-foot Ridge Hill mall in Yonkers was spurred by a new Thruway exit, Stew Leonard Drive, giving access to several big-box stores, the eponymous grocery store and a large mall and residential complex.

Taking its toll

The death knell for the Tappan Zee began in the early 1990s, when the New York Thruway was linked to Interstate 287 west of Suffern, giving bridge-rattling tractor trailers a long-sought route around New York City. That link complete, trucks could take the Thruway to the Tappan Zee to Cross-Westchester and then onto the New England Thruway.

All that traffic took its toll on the bridge. Commuters noticed rush hour started earlier and earlier, with traffic routinely backed up past the Palisades Parkway in Rockland and to Elmsford in Westchester.

Then there are the tolls taken on those who take the bridge.

Cuomo has said that the $5 cash toll to cross from Rockland into Westchester will be frozen until 2020, but he has been coy — and downright incommunicative — about how much it will cost after that. Tolls are only collected eastbound.

By comparison, the cash toll to cross the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln and Holland Tunnel is triple that: $15.

Life and death

The bridge has been the site of mind-numbing traffic jams, crane collapses, car fires and deadly crashes, where babies have been born and where desperate souls have taken their own lives.

It has been a workplace — for the teams who paint, maintain and care for the bridge —and a sign of home for those returning to the area. It has been much more than a way to get from Point A to Point B.

On Aug. 25, Points A and B will change slightly, and the Tappan Zee Bridge will begin to fade from the daily lives of those who take it to and from work, or on more infrequent trips through the region.