The old Tappan Zee Bridge has been demolished and not a moment too soon. Not only was it in poor condition, it was hideously ugly. The aesthetics wouldn’t matter except that the New York metropolitan area is home to so many good-looking bridges that the TZ stood out in a bad way. As is usually for replacement projects of this type, the new bridge was constructed adjacent to the existing and then the old torn down, so that traffic could continue uninterrupted. The construction was an impressive sight from the old bridge and the demolition was an impressive site from the new one; both were clearly visible from passing Hudson Line trains.
After cleaning, the debris from the demolition is being used to create half a dozen artificial reefs in the Atlantic off the south shore of Long Island. The purpose behind the dumping is simply to provide friendly habitats for fish and other sea creatures. This is not a new idea – artificial reefs have been created by sinking ships past the end of their useful life, by using other forms of debris, and most famously in the New York area by using obsolete and worn-out subway cars.
One minor irony is that a lot of past attention was paid to removing natural reefs that posed a threat to ships, and now we’re creating artificial ones.
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