Today’s story on new TZ proposals popping up gave me a case of deja vu. What jolted my memory? A new option that includes “keeping the existing bridge and pairing it with a sister span.”

Flashback May 1987. I was a copy editor for Gannett Suburban Newspapers, in the Harrison office. We were talking about a Rockland staff writer’s article. The state Department of Transportation had announced plans to study constructing a “companion bridge” for the TZ, to be completed by 2010. Why do I remember this? Well, we were all trying to think of funny headlines (that’s what copy editors do. They work nights. Constantly on deadline. Limited opportunity for joviality. Funny headlines, that’s all we got.) So, what did we come up with? “Build the Bridge a Buddy”—Of course, it didn’t run. The best headlines are the ones you can’t publish, but I digress. (And, no, it’s not funny. Read this at 2 a.m., after several cups of coffee. Trust me, you’ll giggle.)

Another chance to digress! I didn’t want to rely on my memory, so this morning I headed to our archives (the electronic library misses this by a couple years.) The drawer that contains the “Tappan Zee Bridge” files is on the bottom. The little finger-hook-shape button you slide over to open the drawer is broken (no kidding.) So, I enlist a mechanically-inclined person (James Walsh was strolling by, so he instantly qualified.) He takes out the drawer above (they are long metal drawers) so we can dig into the other one without opening it. I find the envelope, marked, “Tappan Zee Bridge II 1987” and dig out the clips. Let’s just say the headline we wrote that night wasn’t very funny, either: “Report calls for 2nd Tappan Zee Bridge.” (By the way, the leaders of river villages (on both sides) didn’t find it funny. The headline on the sidebar about reaction to the plan was, “From Hudson’s shores, alarm.” Again, not funny.)

Well, here we are, 10-plus years later, with the DOT now in charge of a TZ Bridge/I-287 Corridor overhaul, and what pops up in the plans? Yeah, let’s build the bridge a buddy.