I grew up in NY. As a kid, we used to take the Hudson River ferry that ran from Yonkers over to Weehawken, NJ. Once the Tappan Zee was built, the ferry ceased operation.
The staggering part of all of this is that the current Tappan Zee was built quickly. Now, in this age of advanced engineering, the replacement bridge will take well over 4 years to build? Just another example of what has happened to this country. Seems like we can’t build any major public project without taking a year and a day.
As for the NY Times comments that the Korean War caused a steel shortage, as I recall, that war ended in 1953. That was 2 to 3 years before steel was needed to build the Tappan Zee. Is the NY Times serious???
In 1941, the USA had 4 aircraft carriers. In 1943, we had 151 (yes, one hundred fifty-one).
It now takes 9-12 years to build one aircraft carrier, and we can only build one at a time.
That's progress for you.