{"id":55603,"date":"2025-11-29T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55603\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T15:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:33:12","slug":"petition-started-to-restore-tappan-zee-bridge-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55603\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition started to restore Tappan Zee Bridge name"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the latest humiliation for Andrew Cuomo, an effort is gaining steam that would undo his decision to christen the reconstructed Tappan Zee Bridge<\/a> after his late father.<\/p>\n

A petition launched <\/a>Nov. 23 \u2014 just weeks after Cuomo was soundly defeated in the New York City mayoral race \u2014 seeks to return the historic \u201cTappan Zee Bridge\u201d moniker to the heavily-trafficked span, which runs 1,200 feet over the Hudson River, connecting Rockland and Westchester counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor nearly six decades, New Yorkers knew this critical Hudson River crossing by its traditional name: Tappan Zee \u2014 a name that honored both the Indigenous Tappan people of the region and the Dutch heritage of early New York settlement (\u2018zee\u2019 meaning sea),\u201d reads the petition.<\/p>\n

It claims then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s vain 2017 move to rename the span \u201cbypassed longstanding naming norms and erased a meaningful part of the region\u2019s cultural and linguistic history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents on both sides of the bridge refused to recognize the bridge\u2019s replacement name. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

Cuomo\u2019s decision<\/a> was met with vocal opposition by residents in Nyack and Tarrytown, with more than 100,000 people signing a petition at the time to keep the original name of the bridge, which first opened in 1955.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe renaming was pushed through during a moment of concentrated political influence and has remained unpopular with residents ever since,\u201d the petition adds. \u201cToday, public sentiment has only grown clearer: New Yorkers want the original name back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition, with over 1,000 signatures, requests the state Senate and Assembly introduce new legislation to change the name<\/a>. Gov. Hochul would have to sign off on the bill.<\/p>\n

Ex Gov. Andrew Cuomo poses next to the bridge that now bears his father\u2019s name. Richard Harbus<\/p>\n

\u201cRestoring the historic name is a nonpartisan correction, not a political statement,\u201d the petition reads. \u201cBridges and place names form part of a community\u2019s shared identity. Changing such a significant name for political reasons sets a poor precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sign that used to greet drivers as they approached the span. NY Post\/Robert Kalfus<\/p>\n

The petition claims renaming the bridge would \u201ccost the state virtually nothing\u201d and \u201creflect the will of the residents who use the bridge daily\u201d while restoring \u201can important Indigenous and regional name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the 2017 renaming, people continue to refer to the span as the Tappan Zee Bridge. <\/p>\n

After Cuomo left office in 2021<\/a>, Westchester politicians campaigned on restoring the bridge\u2019s original name.<\/p>\n

The bridge replacement project was completed in 2018. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in the Hudson Valley still calls the bridge the Tappan Zee for a reason,\u201d state Sen. James Skoufis (D-Woodbury) told The Post in 2023<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s the rightful name.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Skoufis was the main sponsor of a bill that same year that sought to restore the Tappan Zee name. However, the GOP-led effort went nowhere in the Democratic-dominated state Legislature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the latest humiliation for Andrew Cuomo, an effort is gaining steam that would undo his decision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80,1605,12310,57,9,11,10,9331,30286,58,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-55603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-andrew-cuomo","9":"tag-bridges","10":"tag-mario-cuomo","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-rockland-county","16":"tag-tappan-zee-bridge","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-westchester-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}