3 New Bridges Rise in New York, With Looks That Could Stop Traffic -
The home of past-century wonders like the Brooklyn Bridge returns to building cable-stayed bridges, which are designed to “stand the test of time.”
By DAVID W. DUNLAPAPRIL 27, 2017
New York, the city of perpetual arrival, is getting three new gateways: diaphanous cable-stayed bridges
that look almost too ethereal to bear the load of thousands of vehicles and people each day.
Cable-stayed technology, Mr. Cuomo said, will ensure that the new bridges “stand the test of time.”
A new Goethals Bridge, connecting Staten Island to New Jersey, is opening soon.
Between the twin 287-foot-high pylons is a “pier table” — the crossbar in a giant H. It is strong enough
that a 20-foot length of bridge deck could be cantilevered from it, like a rigid diving board, and remain hanging in air until secured to the pylons by a pair of cables.
“We haven’t built big bridges in a while, and the cable-stayed type emerged during
that while,” said Guy Nordenson, a prominent structural engineer in New York and a professor at Princeton.
Then, in 2018, the New New York Bridge, also a parallel cable-stayed design, is set to replace
the Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River, about 10 miles north of the Bronx.
