You Get a Bridge!

Rendering of the New Tappan Zee Bridge (courtesy The New NY Bridge Project)

Following a push by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, the state senate passed a proposal to name the new Tappan Zee Bridge after Cuomo's father, the late Governor Mario Cuomo.

If I were writing this in an august publication as a journalist, I'd reserve opinion and report the facts.

I'm not. I'm writing it here on Exit 55...so...

Blech.

No. Seriously. Blech. Or worse.

First of all, the Tappan Zee Bridge was named in honor of former Gov. Malcolm Wilson in 1994 though, to be fair, virtually nobody called it that.

I was OK with it. In fact, other Hudson Valley river bridges have "honorary" names that nobody uses.

Have you ever called the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge "The Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon Bridge?"

Nope. Nor have I.

(OK, maybe a few of my friends in the road community may have, but we're a little more strict on such things)

Down in New York City, iconic places such as the Triborough Bridge (Robert F. Kennedy Jr), the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (Hugh Carey), and the Queensboro/59th Street Bridge (Ed Koch) have received new monikers.

In those cases, traffic reporters and the public have been informed to refer to these structures by the persons name. Signs have been erected to say that those are the new names.

Sickening.

Thanks, Mike Bloomberg.

Well anyway.

NYC mayors are just the best, no?

And of course, on a side note, we need to focus on fixing the spelling on the Verraz(z)ano-Narrows Bridge, right?

That's sarcasm. Besides, Staten Islanders have different names for the behemoth that joins them with Brooklyn.

But let's get back to ol' Cuomo and the new Tappan Zee.

I suppose if somebody wants to slap a name up in honor of the seatbelt governor (that -- and being a Yankees fan -- is the only way I want to remember the man), OK. But what about Gov. Wilson?

It's pure selfishness by the Cuomo family, who has long desperately wanted to be another Kennedy clan.

But more to the point, I hope -- and I can't stress this enough -- that nobody refers to this bridge as "the Cuomo."

It's the Tappan Zee. Everyone knows it.

I still sometimes stubbornly call FDR Park in Yorktown "Mohansic," because that's what it's name was.

So the connection between Tarrytown and Nyack will remain the Tappan Zee or the TZ.

What's in a name?

Plenty.