Sunday, January 27, 2013
IT COULD FALL AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE: According to a report in New York magazine, the Tappan Zee is a troubled bridge over waters and could collapse at any minute. Among its problems? It was built at one of the widest crossings over the Hudson just to keep it out of Port Authority of New York jurisdiction.
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Adding it to my list of bridges I refuse to cross. Along with the one over Lake Pontchartrain and the San Mateo one that crosses the SF bay (did it once - never again.)
ReplyDeleteDriving over it tomorrow. So thanks for this, I needed something else to worry about. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that it was built at a stupid point on the river 25.2 miles from the Statue of Liberty, so that the tolls went to NY State rather than NY City, will now be added to my list of why government and engineering don't mix.
My husband and I discuss this whenever we cross the bridge. We actually discuss a survival plan, should our car land in the water. That being said, I'm sure I'd panic and forget all of the instructions. I believe that next time I need to get upstate, I will go by way of the GW to the Palisades to the NYS Thruway, thank you very much. Oy.
ReplyDeleteThey should just pass a law requiring the river to be narrower there. Problem solved!
ReplyDeleteThat is an ugly bridge. It looks like somebody just stole a railroad bridge that used to run across a rural stream and welded it to some rickety trusses poked into the mud.
ReplyDeleteMy mom crosses over the Tappan Zee twice every day. I'm glad she's retiring this Spring.
ReplyDeleteOther than in a hurricane or low on gas, I don't know why you would take issue with the Lake Ponchartrain Bridge. It's a causeway bridge, so it can't exactly fall down. Probably the safest kind of bridge, structurally. And I kind of like the San Mateo Bridge, which goes (west to east) from suburbia to bay to weird Martian-red evaporating-pond landscape to Coyote Hills nature preserve to hard urban blight in only 10 minutes. You're probably afraid of the floating bridges in Seattle too.
ReplyDeleteThe bridges that are close to the water, without big structure on the sides, even if they're very sound and safe, trigger my "I'm scared of bridges" reflex. Especially if they're long, like the Pontchartrain.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what floating bridges are, but they sound terrifying.
Exactly what it sounds like. Just like the Lake Ponchartrain Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge, except built on pontoons with nothing under them.
ReplyDeleteMy breathing got a little shallow just reading that.
ReplyDeleteI actually love this bridge. Well, OK, I love the view from this bridge. But...not enough to risk plummeting into the water.
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