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The Tappan Zee Bridge connects Westchester County with Rockland County. It was also decrepit and falling apart. So, the new $4B span has just been built, and the old one is being dismantled.

Change.org has already collected 89,000 signatures, as of this writing, protesting the name change to the Mario Cuomo Bridge.

“Tappan Zee” refers to the original founders of the land: The Tappan Indians and the Dutch. (“Zee” is Dutch for “sea,” the NY Post reports.)

And the petition makes a good argument for keeping the original name:

“The name Tappan Zee has no politics associated with it. And it properly recognizes the true founders of this land: the Tappan Indians and the Dutch. Plus, it sounds cool to say, ‘I’m taking the Tappan Zee.’ It does not sound cool to say, ‘I’m taking the Cuomo.’ Come on people!”

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo is convinced it’s those Wascally Wepublicans who are to blame for the petition.

Via NY Post.

Gov. Cuomo is blaming “rabid conservatives” who hated his father for the petition drive to get the name of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge changed back to the Tappan Zee.

“You have an extreme conservative group that is running a campaign against my father’s name, which, personally, is hurtful,” Cuomo told reporters….

”I believe it’s mean,” he added.

“I believe it’s vindictive… It’s funded by a person named Robert Mercer, who is the same person who funds Breitbart News, the ultraconservative news station, the same person who funds Donald Trump. They are rabid conservatives and they don’t like my father.”….

But Reclaim New York spokesman Doug Kellogg said it followed the lead of a Port Chester resident, Monroe Mann, who launched the campaign to keep the historic name on the Westchester-Rockland crossing.

Kellogg said Cuomo’s charge that his group was behind the effort was nuts.

“Like his claims about New York’s booming economy, just because the Governor says something over and over again doesn’t make it true,” he said….

New Yorkers are right to fume over the Tappan Zee’s new name