On Demand
Over the Triborough Bridge
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Dale Shaw, morning traffic anchor at Air America Radio, WWRL, offers a traffic reporter's perspective on the renaming of the Triborough Bridge. What do you think?
- About the Brian Lehrer Show »
- Staff Bios »
- Contact Us »
- Tapes and Transcripts »
- Latest Episode »
- Show Archive »
Features & Series
Podcast
Stay up to date.
Subscribe to the Podcast
YOU PRODUCE The Brian Lehrer Show
Be a listener-producer with facts, questions and people you'd like to hear on the air.
More
The Brian Lehrer Show Scrapbook
Visit the scrapbook for daily photos and miscellany from The Brian Lehrer Show.
More
Shop at Amazon!
The Brian Lehrer Show picks
Start your Amazon shopping on WNYC.org and a portion of your total purchase goes to WNYC.
More
Comments
Refresh
Renaming highways and bridges or tunnels, or even subway stations, in honor of recently dead people is absurd. Long live the East Side Drive, West Side Highway, Interboro Pkwy, Queens-Midtown Tunnel, and Brooklyn Bridge.
it's overdue. he was a hero and could have been a great president. sparing us from watergate and nixon and the troubles of the 1970's.
This proposal should not be considered during this election year and its aftermath.
RFK Jr. is in the running to replace Hillary as New York's junior senator should she win the presidency.
RFK's namesake has a good record of public service. But we shouldn't be using public property to boost his profile or aid his candidacy.
This is ploy by Spitzer to resuscitate his political fortunes. Renaming bridges is not a solution to heal his self-inflicted wounds.
By the way, RFK was a carpetbagger and had absolutely no connection to New York when he moved here just before he ran for the Senate.
P.S. Can you imagine how confused people will be with two "Kennedy" appellations for major infrastucture projects? "Take the Kennedy to get to Kennedy." What?
"Take the RFK to get to JFK" or better, "Take the Bobby to get to Jack". It's not that difficult.
It doesn't really matter. I like RFK. The most important thing is how easy it is to say. The RFK is pretty easy, easier than Triborough.
I would love to see something named for Robert F. Kennedy and I think he deserves it now, but somehow I can not go with the Triborough Bridge being changed...in my lifetime. The Triborough Bridge for me and my family carries a lot of history and (silly as it sounds) love, I can't go with this change right now. Would y'all be kind enough to wait until I die? I miss Idlewild Airport too.
While they are at it, they should improve the pedestrian/bike path
I am very disappointed that Gov. Spitzer is taking up his and our time with trying to rename the Triboro Bridge. With all due respect to Bobby Kennedy, he does not loom so large in the history of NYC that this honor is warranted. And much money/time will be spent on the changeover to the new name...both are better spent on the pressing problems of NYState, for example those empty storefronts in Albany!
Renaming is not the way to go. The renaming of Avenues and streets in the 5 Boros has been mostly a non-event after the naming day. We don't send mail to Louis Armstrong Way, or to any of the various streets named after fallen firefighters. And if we do, it usually comes back as "not deliverable as addressed" so why bother? Let's NOT rename anymore. Let's save these names for upcoming projects. We DO have upcoming projects...right?
Regarding one of the calls. Jackie Robinson Pkwy honors a minority.
RFK did very little for New York State during his short tenure and mainly used NY as a vehicle to become president. As such RFK doesn't deserve this honor.
RFK had nothing to do with the Triboro. If you want name a bridge after someone with some relevance, I can think of a bridge they should name after Teddy Kennedy.
I give directions a lot, and people DON'T make connection between Triborough, and connecting the 3 northern boroughs. It's a good functional name, but still over peoples head.
fyi: Henry Hudson was not Dutch. He was an Englishman, employed by the Dutch East India Company.
I think renaming the triborough bridge is a FANTASTIC idea and way overdue. I think naming it for RFK is a great idea. Let's call it the "Bobby Bridge"!
Seriously, he was a wonderful and dedicated public servant and we should honor him.
Henry Hudson was an English guy. He worked for the Dutch East India Co.
YOU CAN NAME IT WHAT EVER YOU WANT. NEW YORKERS WILL CALL IT THE TRI BORO
Oh no you dih-int!
Hey, I like that, The RFK-Triborough Bridge, sounds good to me. And I still call it 6th Avenue. I knew Hudson was English, ha ha ha, nmnmnmn
I'm not sure having a bridge named after you is such a plus. Imagine how many times a day your name is cursed as people are stuck in traffic
I say sell the tri-borough's name to the highest bidder and put the money into the road funds.
The Merril-Lynch Tri-borough Bridge.
While I appreciate the sentiment in renaming the Triborogh, we should bear in mind that we are paying our politicians to first care for the infrastructure of the city. I recall a recent survey published in the paper that concluded the majority of bridges are in dire need of renovation. We should be concentrating on that.
The Triborough is a functional, atocious looking landmark- with a functional atrocious name. The name RFK might give it a little personality.
Check Tip O'Neill's bio -- he tells us that RFK was the nastiest of the Kennedy lot. A backstabber. No champion of civil rights until he and his brother realized they had no political choice.
(And why did Brian Lehrer call him a hero? Because he was assassinated?)
H. Hudson was working for the Dutch when discovered river
Henry Hudson was, as correctly pointed out, an Englishman. The confusion seems to originate from the fact Hudson was sailing a Dutch vessel from the former Dutch East Indian Company which had initially set sail to discover a route to Asia via the North Pole.
Speaking of mouthfuls ("RFK Triboro Bridge"...)
In 1978 they renamed the bridge connecting Brooklyn to the Rockaways from the Marine Parkway Bridge (built 1937) to "The Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge." Everyone I know still calls it the Marine Parkway bridge (as it should be, in my opinion); the latter is far too unweildly. I think the same would happen with the Triboro, since it is explicitly descriptive.
As a geographer, I would like to see the names of things continue to correspond to their geographic locations. The "Triboro" is descriptive in this way. I see no reason to change names of things that have perfectly functional names to begin with. And I fear that doing so takes us one step closer to the acceptance of the grotesque practice of corporate naming rights. Will we one day see the Brooklyn Bridge be renamed the JP Morgan Chase Bridge? Will the Williamsburg Bridge be renamed the Wal-Mart Bridge? I would like to make sure that our public spaces are not up for sale.
Caller's "RKF Tri-boro Bridge" is elegant solution--keeps fleeting NY history in popular mind, and w/the initials, it's really not such
a mouthful.
On the municipal level, renaming streets is a sometimes-criticized duty of the City Council. One street renaming vote--part of Gates Avenue in Brooklyn to become Sonny Carson Avenue--was especially controversial this past spring and failed to pass (even though council proposals almost always pass by the time they reach the council for a vote).
Here's a Gotham Gazette article on that topic.
http://snipurl.com/1wzxn
We'll see if the state legislature gets as mired in the debates as the council.
I'm against it
Imagine how many people might expect to take the Kennedy Bridge to Kennedy Airport??
What's the purpose? We need another Democratic named location?
I was in the ARMY when Kennedy was shot.
So I revere him
Jackie Robinson was not a politician, but he was a Hero!
Always interesting how a seemingly minor issue or topic on your show always initiates much broader and deeper issues. Don 't find that much on other "talk shows"
Great show!
Anyhow, what interested me was, and you pointed out the difference in the generational response.
The "older folks" holding holding on to the "Tri Boro" and the younger generation eagerly embracing the change, even though most "oldies" had a more meaningful recollection of RFK, some negative most positive. But that wasn't the issue with the "oldies."
Point being that younger people don't have the same respect for historyl, and more readily accept historical reconstructs.
The implications are many and might be worth discussion on the show.
Thanx always great show
Only last month I noticed while going east over the Tappen Zee bridge a sign reading the Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappen Zee Bridge. According to the Turnpike Authority website, that has been the official name since 1994. Of course, since I never noticed that name before, I wondered if the sign was new.
I did not live in NY state during Wilson's short time as governor and would not consider changing the way I refer to the bridge. I do not use the Triboro and have no strong opinion about renaming it now.
I remember my grade school history teacher saying that after his 1st Dutch voyage Henry Hudson gave in to his countrymen who said he should be patriotic and sail for England instead, since the Dutch were serious rivals at the time. As a reward for his patriotism, his crew mutinied and left him in Hudson Bay. I wonder if there is any truth in that story or if my teacher just wanted us to remember the nationalities of the 2 voyages.
I am commenting today because I just listened to this segment from the archives.
Leave a Comment
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Back to EpisodeEmail addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.