Tappan Zee Bridge's Awkward Location Explained

"The Tappan Zee crosses one of the widest points on the Hudson — the bridge is more than three miles long. And if you go just a few miles south, the river gets much narrower...Why did they build the Tappan Zee where they did, rather than building it a few miles south?

"It turns out, the bridge was part of a much larger project: The New York State Thruway, one of the first modern highway systems.  There was an alternate proposal for a bridge at a narrower spot nearby. The proposal was put forward by top engineers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.  But that proposal was killed by New York governor Thomas E. Dewey...

"The Port Authority — the body that proposed putting the bridge further south — had a monopoly over all bridges built in a 25-mile radius around the Statue of Liberty.  If the bridge had been built just a bit south of its current location — that is, if it had been built across a narrower stretch of the river — it would have been in the territory that belonged to the Port Authority.  As a result, the Port Authority — not the State of New York — would have gotten the revenue from tolls on the bridge. And Dewey needed that toll revenue to fund the rest of the Thruway." -- David Kestenbaum, A Big Bridge in the Wrong Place, NPR

Tappan Zee Bridge's Awkward Location Explained