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Cuomo, standing on a boat to watch the bridge parts being removed, said the removal marks the final milestone for what has been one of the "really great projects to be part of," but added, laughing, that "None of it was easy."
The last span, which weighs in at 11 million pounds, is being held on four columns as it is being dismantled by workers and then lowered onto barges below with the help of the heavy-duty super crane known as the Left Coast Lifter, according to New York Thruway officials.
Once on the barges, they'll move it away several miles and then they will dismantle this span and take it away in pieces, officials said.
Then the eastern span is going to be lifted out of the water; it's now sitting at the bottom of the riverbed. That will be lifted and taken away, and then that will be, in many ways, the final chapter in what has been a very challenging story, but also a fulfilling story, the governor said Friday.
Once all is complete, Tappan Zee Constructors will be in charge of the removal and scrapping of the final remains of the old TZB.
Cuomo said once the final span is removed the view will improve: "You look south and you see the Manhattan skyline, you think of all the bridges one longer than the next: George Washington Bridge, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the tunnels, the Subway—we built great, great projects and those projects made New York, New York," he said.
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