In January, before everything blew up, Eliot Spitzer started an effort to rename the Triborough Bridge for RFK. Yesterday, near the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Kennedy, the New York State Assembly voted to pass the name change. Gov. Patterson says he’ll sign the bill, and the Triborough Bridge will soon have a new name.
4 comments
On paper only. That bridge will always be the Triborough no matter what the legislature votes.
I have to agree with Marsha, a rose is a rose by any name, just like many other renamed ny thoroways like 6th ave, their names will never change, we may be a city of change but we are stubborn on our road names! we stick with what we know, except for idewilde, kennedy is a much better name for it!
Not necessarily. More and more, New York is being filled by people who’ve come to the city from somewhere else, and they’ll pick up the names from the signs and traffic reports.
For example, the Interboro Parkway is increasingly called the Jackie Robinson. Ask someone new to the city to find the Gowanus Expressway, and they will only see signs for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
My son is not even 16 months old yet, but I’m sure he’ll grow up knowing the bridge as RFK. The signs, traffic reports, E-ZPass statements, all will say RFK. Plus, its name can be neatly summarized with three initials, which seems to be a trend affecting everything today. (I’d say youth-driven trend, except the initialism WMD was created for a grown man who just can’t say ‘nuclear’. Now, back off my soapbox…).
Give it a generation or two, and the name Triboro will be as archaic as Idlewild Airport is to us today.
Scott, it is your duty as a parent of a child growing up in New York City to make sure your child never refers to the Triborough Bridge as anything other than the Triborough Bridge. Parents have a lot more influence on their children than signs, traffic reports, and E-Z Pass statements.