Construction Quiz: What will the new Tappan Zee Bridge share with the new Bay Bridge?

What lifts up to 1,750 tons? Goodbye "Left Coast Lifter". Hello "I Lift New York". The massive crane was barged 6,000 miles through the Panama Canal to begin construction of the replacement Tappan Zee Bridge, having completed the Bay Bridge job.

1 minute read

February 4, 2014, 12:00 PM PST

By Irvin Dawid


The name change is only appropriate for one of the world's largest floating cranes. It is now docked at a Port Authority of N.Y. and N.J. facility in Jersey City after its one-month journey from San Francisco Bay where it helped build the new East Span of the Bay Bridge that opened Sept. 2.

Next job: Tear down the existing Tappan Zee Bridge, operated by the New York State Thruway Authority, and "build the new bridge’s structure and foundation," writes Rebecca Harshbarger. "It is expected to shorten construction time, and cut costs in building because it is so powerful."

“The Lift New York super crane can lift the equivalent of twelve Statues of Liberty at once,” said (N.Y.) Governor Cuomo in a statement (Jan. 30).

Passage through the Panama Canal was no easy task. Watch The New York Times video showing "the twin-boom Left Coast Lifter, which is said to be the world’s largest floating crane, lifted roughly 54 feet above Pacific sea level in two stages at the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks," writes

Thursday, January 30, 2014 in New York Post

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