December 10, 2005
A New Bridge Rising?
If there is one thing Gothamist loves it would have to be, well, Gotham. But if there are two things that Gothamist loves, well, it would have to be Gotham and ... Bridges. Yeah. Bridges. We really do love us some bridges. So much that we try to walk over at least one a week (seriously, great way to blow off steam). We're the kind of people that do Bike New York just for the excuse to go over the 59th Street and the Verrazano Bridges.
Which brings us to this link that we found via Curbed. The gist of it? The Tappen Zee Bridge is outdated and rickety and, after fifty years, needs some companionship. Now we all, for one reason or another, have gone over the Tappen Zee Bridge (uhm, right?), so it should come as no surprise that officials are interested in creating an alternative to it. (Don't know what we're talking about? Click here to find out everything you could want to know about the bridge). Now, we've already made clear that we really like bridges, but let us tell you, we LOVE the idea of new bridges. So we're very happy that it is looking increasingly likely that there will be a new cable-stayed bridge going up in the next decade. We would have liked a giant suspension bridge, but adequate anchorages just don't exist. The new bridge, if built, could include high occupancy lanes and a commuter rail.
Photo taken from NBC's Tappan Zee Weather Cam.
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When you say "Bike New York" I am guessing that you mean their "Five Borough Bike Tour".
And about the bridge, I recall seeing something on the news (don't recall which channel) this past week about it. One of the the things they mentioned was running a new Metro-North line over a new bridge, which would be a good thing.
Um, it's Tappan Zee. With an A.
Come by in October when there is a bike ride across the Tappan Zee to raise funds for MS. The long route brings you back over the Bear Mountain bridge, with another great (and very different) view of the Hudson.
If you loooooove the idea of bridges, how about this one? Okay, they don't really plan to build it. That's just a proposed design to span the Strait of Gibraltar rendered over NYC to show the scale of the bridge. This monster puts Hugh Ferriss' skyscraper bridge to shame. Imagine a direct Brooklyn to New Jersey link...
IIRC, the name of the event has changed over the years. It began as the "Great Five Boro Bike Tour" back when Citibank was the main sponsor. After Citibank dropped out, the event wasn't run one year, the only break in the annual event. AYH found a new main sponsor and it was renamed Bike New York so it would sound modern. But now that they've added other events, BikeNY has become a catchall name for all the events and the tour has reverted to its original name.