Results tagged “tappanzeebridge”

Police are searching for the body of Annie Morrell Petrillo, who jumped off the Tappan Zee Bridge on Thursday evening. Petrillo's mother, Anne Scripps Douglas, an heir to the Scripps newspaper fortune, was found bludgeoned on December 31, 1993 and later died from her injuries; the main suspect was Petrillo's stepfather, who killed himself by committing suicide off the Tappan Zee Bridge on New Year's Day 1994.

Exactly two weeks after Diane Schuler's fateful wrong way drive and crash on the Taconic left eight people dead, a woman was pulled over after driving across the Tappan Zee Bridge in the wrong direction. The 75-year-old woman from Irvington made it two miles across the bridge to the Rockland County side before being stopped by state troopers. She told that them that she was aware that she had been driving the wrong way, but kept going because she thought there would be a place to make a U-turn. The woman had even gone through the tolls in the wrong direction—the TZ toll lanes have no arm to block her. She ended up driving in the wrong direction from the Westchester side after she accidentally entered the off-ramp from the highway, missing her exit to get on the Major Deegan Expressway. Police ticketed her for improperly entering a highway, driving in the wrong direction and reckless driving. The incident took place ominously close to where Schuler's deadly drive went haywire, accidentally getting on the Saw Mill Parkway in Tarrytown before heading back toward the Taconic.

Yesterday state officials announced that they have chosen to forgo plans to repair the Tappan Zee Bridge and instead intend to build an entirely new one. The new bridge would also include new a new commuter rail line to link up with Metro North and high-speed bus lanes at a total cost of $16 billion.

As many people wonder about the state of the bridges in the New York City region, in the wake of I-35 collapsing in Minneapolis, the city's Department of Transportation is trying to reassure residents that our bridges are safe. Though many bridges meet the definition of "deficient" - 19% of bridges are in "fair" or "poor" condition, 15% meet the federal definition of "structurally deficient" - a DOT first deputy commissioner Lori Ardito says, "In New York, we do not have any bridges that are structurally deficient."

After hearing about the tragic rush-hour bridge collapse in Minneapolis that has claimed at least four lives, we wondered what the conditions of New York City's bridges were. Like the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, several of our city's largest bridges are undergoing what seems like constant construction. All the East River bridges are either undergoing repairs right now, have plans for the future, just finished construction, or all of the above.

Yesterday afternoon, a burglar's ransacking of a police officer's Bayside apartment led to a police chase that culminated with the SUV crashing into a mini-school bus. The SUV and bus collided on the Douglaston Parkway near Van Zandt Avenue, and 12 people, including eight children, the bus escort and the bus driver, were taken to hospitals for injuries. The driver of the stolen SUV tried to escape on foot but was chased down by police.

Newsday has a good article looking at the transportation issues the next governor will deal with - the biggest being the MTA. The MTA, which already announced fare hikes for next year, faces insane budget deficits in the coming years: $905 million in 2008, $1.13 billion in 2009, $1.48 billion in 2010. The Straphangers' Campaign's Gene Russianoff says of the MTA, "They borrowed a ton of money to fix a system, and now the bill is coming due."

- This may be one of the greatest worthless lists of all time. Truly groundbreaking.

Attorney General - and frontrunner in the NY State gubernatorial race - Eliot Spitzer laid out his transportation priorities to the Regional Plan Association yesterday, and on the list: the Second Avenue Subway, the LIRR link to Grand Central, and replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge. But he's less enthusiastic about the JFK rail link from downtown Manhattan. Pataki's been hot on the idea of a rail link since 2004. Could it be because the federal government okayed $2 billion to go to the project? Anyway, showing his true optimistic political stripes, Spitzer also said he'd try to put the MTA on track. Well, we don't know how he could do worse than Pataki, unless we plumb our nightmares.

This happened a little outside of the city, but as many New Yorkers have traveled on the Tappan Zee Bridge at one point or another, we couldn't help but be amazed by the story: A tractor trailer hit a car that had pulled over to the side, causing a tremendous fire that killed the car's driver, Angel Norales. The car's passenger, Escolastico Arzu, was on fire and he jumped into the Hudson River. Arzu, who is from the Bronx, was lifted out and is at a Westchester hopistal in stable condition. Norales had taken the car to be fixed the day before, but it stalled again while on the Tappan Zee. The driver of the tractor trailor was not charged.

- We hope you voted today, but if not, the polls are open until 9PM; find your polling place here

Something to look forward to this fall: The reopening of the observation deck at Rockefeller Center. The deck was closed in 1986, to accomodate a renovation of the Rainbow Room, and will now be the second highest, after the Empire State Building (the World Trade Center had been the highest). Reporter David Dunlap had this description of the view from Rockefeller Center:

Coney Island is still visible, marked on the southern horizon by the T-shaped profile of the Parachute Jump. Near the northern horizon, the Tappan Zee Bridge can be glimpsed at a turn in the Hudson River. Even during the snowstorm on Tuesday, there was a majesty to this place, lost in a howling whiteness through which Midtown's familiar spires and plateaus were recognizable only as ghostly gray shadows.

Tickets will cost $14, which is competitive with the $14.50 the ESB charges for adults (or maybe we're getting our facts wrong, because the NY Times says the ESB is $1 cheaper, but when we attempt to buy ESB tickets online, they seem to be $14.50), and Tishman-Speyer, the company that manages Rockefeller Center, is looking for ways to make sure visitors aren't waiting for too long, which, again, is what the ESB is also doing - films for people to watch while in line, advanced ticket purchases; plus they are bringing back pedestal-mounted binoculars. And for those of you who work at Rockefeller Center, there will be a separate entrance for the observation deck.