The bridge, nearly 5km long, was opened in 1955 to carry traffic between the southern New England area and other regions west of the Hudson. Around 140,000 vehicles used the bridge daily.
But the old bridge had deteriorated substantially and would have been too expensive to maintain or keep open for lighter traffic use. It became redundant after the new bridge of the same name, built parallel to it, opened last year. The remaining span will be dismantled later this year.
The new twin cable-stayed Tappan Zee Bridge, officially named the Governor Mario Cuomo Bridge after former New York governor Mario Cuomo, carries the carries the I-87 and I-287. It also has a shared bicycle and pedestrian lane. Construction of the new bridge started in 2013 and the north span was opened in August 2017 with all lanes opened by last September.
The Tappan Zee is named for an American Indian tribe from the area called Tappan while the word Zee mean sea in Dutch, who were the first Europeans to settle in the area.
A controlled explosion demolished the eastern span of the old cantilever Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River near New York City.
