New Tappan Zee Bridge, Cable-stayed road bridge in Tarrytown, New York.
The New Tappan Zee Bridge is a twin cable-stayed structure spanning 4,989 meters across the Hudson River with eight automobile lanes, dedicated bicycle paths, and pedestrian walkways supported by four towers and 192 steel cable stays.
The original Tappan Zee Bridge, a 4,881-metre cantilever span, opened in 1955 after construction from 1952, built on an $81 million budget with a 50-year design life. Carrying 140,000 vehicles daily by the 2000s, it was replaced: the new north span opened to westbound traffic on August 26, 2017, and the south span opened on September 7, 2018.
The name Tappan Zee comes from 17th-century Dutch settlers, who combined the name of the Tappan people with the Dutch word for sea. The bridge's official name, Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, honors the former New York governor, but it omits "Tappan Zee" and has drawn petitions and legislative bills seeking to restore the older name.
The north span carries a shared-use path for cyclists and pedestrians, giving a crossing between Tarrytown and Nyack. The bridge is the only Hudson crossing between Westchester and Rockland counties, so traffic has no nearby alternative. The deck sits a few yards north of the old bridge's alignment, connecting to the existing Thruway approaches on both banks.
The Left Coast Lifter, one of the world's largest cranes, lifted pre-assembled girder groups a full span at a time. The new spans are among the widest cable-stayed decks anywhere, 56 m combined, and are built to last at least 100 years.
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