Residents Gather Stories, Images for a Communal Tale of Two Bridges

A creative partnership has formed between two people who gravitate daily to the riverfront, taking photos of that great bridge, enjoying the RiverWalk, watching rapt as the cranes arrive and one bridge gets ready to go as another grows.

Residents Carlos Gonzalez (born and raised in North Tarrytown, now Sleepy Hollow) and Loretta London (who moved here with her husband in 2004) have started what they are calling the Tappan Zee Bridge Chronicles, a Tale of Two Bridges project aimed at gathering stories, images and memories from people living and working along the Hudson, with a focus on that fascinating bridge, its replacement, its history.

They will choose from the submissions to form a book, bolstered by the photographs of Gonzalez. The text will “write itself” as these stories accumulate, Gonzalez said.

“We would like to invite as many people as possible to participate in our project,” London said.

Gonzalez is a professional photographer who has come to be known for the daily images of the bridge, often by sunset, he shares with the 10591 Facebook group. 

London is a registered nurse who works for the American Heart Association. She moved to Tarrytown with her husband Roger because they both wanted to have a view of the river. They built their home in what she calls the “perfect location on the ridge of Wilson Park Drive.” Most mornings and evenings you can spot Loretta, Roger and their dog, Maximus walking from the Tarrytown Riverwalk to Sleepy Hollow. 

One morning while enjoying their walk, London mentioned to her husband how wonderful it would be to chronicle the building of the new bridge and interview the people who watched the construction of the old bridge. After speaking to a few authors experienced in chronicling she was encouraged to begin this project. 

London is among the many who frequently “Like” and comment on Gonzalez’ photographs of the bridge and its surroundings. She reached out to him to see if he would be interested in collaborating on a book and discovered that he too was thinking about chronicling the making of the new bridge but through images. 

“My lifelong love of the Tappan Zee Bridge stems from my childhood memories growing up in North Tarrytown,” Gonzalez shares. “As an adolescent my friends and I spent many a day exploring the inner workings of the TZB. The barbed wire fences or the padlocked doors that led to the inner sanctum did not deter us from our adventures. It is with great enthusiasm that I enter into this joint venture with Loretta. I am a published photographer and have been shooting photographs since I was a kid. I love to capture the many moods of the Tappan Zee Bridge as it sits majestically on our historic landscape. My aim is to chronicle the building of the new bridge and the dismantling of our beloved yet crumbling Tappan Zee in photographic detail.”

Now they need your help.

The “Tarrytown Bridge Chronicles, A Tale of Two Bridges” is, in the end, a community project. “We encourage our Riverfront neighbors to participate,” London said.  

Their website is http://tappanzeebridgechronicles.com/, and on Facebook you can visit them here. Please visit and begin posting your memories and stories.