Tappan Zee Replacement's Grand Opening on Friday Spoiled by Closure on Saturday

"The opening of the second span of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge on Saturday was delayed after a piece of its predecessor, the old Tappan Zee Bridge, which is parallel to it, became destabilized and threatened to fall," reports Mihir Zaveri.

"The Tappan Zee was being disassembled when the 'potentially dangerous situation developed' and a piece of the old bridge became destabilized," explains Zaveri. Officials are making sure the old bridge is not a threat to the new bridge before the public can begin to use the new bridge.

Zaveri provides more details about the problem and the potential risk to the new bridge.

Back up just one day, and the news about the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge was much more celebratory, as New York officials, including Govern Andrew Cuomo, celebrated the grand opening of the new bridge.

"In a political, personal and governmental culmination, Gov. Andrew Cuomo opened the new Tappan Zee Bridge in a tearful ceremony that invoked his late father," reports Jimmy Vielkind.

"Andrew Cuomo, 60, has worked for the replacement span since taking office in 2011 and, in the waning hours of the 2017 legislative session, moved his fellow lawmakers to name it for Mario Cuomo, who served three terms as governor from 1983 to 1995," adds Vielkind, to explain the name change and the importance of the vent to the Cuomo administration.

For more coverage of the bridge's opening, Joseph Berger reported on the impending opening of the bridge back at the end of August. Berger focused more on the "two decades of dithering by government officials and four years of herculean drilling, pounding, hauling and lifting by 7,000 workers" it took to complete the bridge.