Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge
LONG ISLAND – Governor Andrew Cuomo sought to justify why he pushed to have the new bridge over the Hudson River between Westchester and Rockland counties named for his late father, a former governor of New York.
The issue of changing the name from the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge made sense to the current governor “because this is going to be a new bridge and we though a new bridge deserved a new name,” he said during the only debate with Democrat challenger Cynthia Nixon, broadcast Wednesday night on New York City’s Channel 2 TV.
When asked by a moderator if he would consider changing the name to the Mario Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge, the current governor said “the Tappan Zee Bridge is no more.”
Had the new bridge been named the Mario Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge, it would have followed the model of the Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and the FDR-Mid-Hudson Bridge.
Cuomo committed that the toll on the new bridge would not change through 2020 and any increase thereafter would depend upon the overall condition of state finances.
