What’s old is new again, including — finally — the Kosciuszko Bridge.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, assorted elected officials, marching bands and revelers gathered at the first span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge to open it officially to traffic Thursday. The governor said the span will bring relief to drivers who have endured the traffic misery created by the original bridge, built in 1939.
The governor was the first to test out the new crossing, and did so in style. Cuomo borrowed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 Packard from a museum and successfully piloted it across.
“I brought it today … to bring the spirt of FDR to the bridge,” he said.
The span, which was set to admit cars at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, cost $555 million and has three lanes in each direction. By 2020, the bridge will be two spans, with five lanes on the Queens-bound side and four lanes and a pedestrian path on the Brooklyn-bound side.
