I'm not sure how to describe it, but every time I drive over the Tappan Zee Bridge, and eyeball the latest construction of the new bridge, I'm in awe!

Maybe it's the fact that the Tappan Zee is 16,013 feet, or 3.03 miles long, and is the largest bridge in the state of New York. Maybe it's the fact that a guy named Igino D'Ippolito stands on 2 foot wide steel beams, even during the winter, six stories above the icy Hudson River, while leading a team of 25 guys whose job it is to install the concrete roadway for the new bridge. In a New York Times article dated January 6 of this year, D'Ippolito told the writer that when he was a kid, he was afraid of heights, but has since learned to enjoy the risk.

One Of World's Largest Floating Cranes In Place As Tappan Zee Bridge Gets Replaced
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Meet Super Crane operator, New Rochelle native Ronald Burgess. It takes two operators and a crew of mechanics and deck hands to keep this 328-foot-tall super crane running in sync. Burgess told newnybridge.com that the crane's cab looks like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Take a look at this incredible feat of engineering as it begins to rise up out of the Hudson River.

The original Tappan Zee opened on December 15, 1955, and cost $81 million. The new bridge will cost an estimated $4 billion. Here's a short video of the super crane, which sailed from the coast of California passing through the Panama Canal.

If you happen to be a bridge freak like myself, you can follow the construction at newnybridge.com

Listen to Ethan Carey on the Ethan & Lou Show weekdays from 5:30-10AM on 95.1 FM. You can listen online at i95rock.com/listen-live/ or by downloading the radioPup app for your mobile device.

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