Fight To Restore Name of Tappan Zee Bridge Tests Whether New York Can Break the Cuomo Spell

Efforts to rebrand the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge are testing whether the family’s hold over New York State is broken. Locals prefer the old name: Tappan Zee. After their years of effort, political support is building at last thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s defeat in last month’s New York City mayoral race.The Tappan Zee Bridge, built in the 1950s, connected Rockland and Westchester Counties at the Hudson River’s widest point 20 miles north of Manhattan. Because a persistent myth held that it was only designed to last for 50 years, Mr. Cuomo replaced it in 2017 and christened it for his father, a three-term governor who died in 2015.According to a petition at Change.org, Mr. Cuomo “bypassed longstanding naming norms and erased a meaningful part of the region’s cultural and linguistic history.” They say the Mario name “was pushed through during a moment of concentrated political influence and has remained unpopular with residents ever since.”The Tappan people, the petition states, were a “subgroup” of the Lenni-Lenape or Delaware Indians. The “zee” is a rendering of the Dutch word for “sea,” reflecting how residents of what was then New Amsterdam viewed the massive section of the Noort or North River.New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, announcing his run for governor on May 22, 2010, with his father, the former governor, Mario Cuomo, in the background. Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesMr. Cuomo had enough political power to rewrite the map, floated as a Democratic presidential candidate like his father had been in the 1990s. After New York’s attorney general found that the younger Cuomo had sexually harassed staffers, he resigned in 2021.This columnist inquired about reverting the bridge’s name in the wake of that scandal. The response from most in political office was tepid. The fear, among both Democrats and Republicans, was that Mr. Cuomo would rise from his political grave. They preferred not to risk his wrath.Now that Mr. Cuomo’s comeback has collapsed, officeholders are more willing to challenge him. Congressman Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents the district where the bridge’s western legs stand, has long pushed for the old name. “Should the historic ‘Tappan Zee Bridge’ name be restored?” he asked on X last week.“For me,” Mr. Lawler wrote, “it will always be the Tappan Zee Bridge.” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a GOP candidate for governor, retweeted her colleague. “Long live the Tappan Zee Bridge!” she said, garnering far more positive than negative responses.The Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, formerly known as the Tappan Zee Bridge, illuminated in blue on April 9, 2020 at Tarrytown, New York. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images“As a lifelong Rockland County resident,” Mr. Lawler told The New York Sun on Monday, it’s the Tappan Zee regardless of the road signs. “When I served in the New York State Assembly,” he said, “I introduced legislation to officially restore its original name. I fully support the ongoing efforts to return the bridge to its rightful name.”Across Rockland County, weatherbeaten yard signs advocating for the Tappan Zee have dotted lawns since 2017. It’s not just nostalgia, but irritation over the way Mr. Cuomo ignored locals who feel buffeted by the whims of Albany and Gotham.“With all due respect to the former governor,” the Rockland County executive, Edward Day, told the Sun on Monday, “renaming the Tappan Zee Bridge was a complete insult to the people of the Hudson Valley.” He urged an embrace of the “generations of history, identity, and regional pride” behind the traditional moniker.Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during the New York City Mayoral Candidates Forum at Medgar Evers College, April 23, 2025. AP/Frank Franklin II“This sudden change,” Mr. Day said, “was a political calculation” and restoration “would be a meaningful step toward honoring our community’s history.” With few political levers left to pull and no longer able to inspire fear, it’s hard to see how Mr. Cuomo can squelch the voice of public opinion.Mr. Cuomo might be expected to invoke the man he honored as an ally. In 2017, at the height of his powers, reporters asked Mr. Cuomo what his father would think of the switch. “He would say,” he replied, “‘I don’t want a bridge named after me.’” He would have considered it “an exercise in vanity.”A long-time friend of the elder Cuomo, William O’Shaughnessy, told the Journal News in 2017 that the late governor disliked the idea of a monument like the one that replaced the Tappan Zee. “I just want,” Mr. O’Shaughnessy remembered him saying, “a stickball court in a little alley in Queens.” _______________Correction: Dutch is the language of the word “zee.” An earlier version misnamed the language.

Fight To Restore Name of Tappan Zee Bridge Tests Whether New York Can Break the Cuomo Spell

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