Triborough Bridge Now The RFK By Joseph Orovic - Queens Tribune

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The Triborough Bridge was officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge at a ceremony held in Astoria Park on Wednesday.

Connecting Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, the bridge (I-278), joined the New York landscape in 1936.

Former President Bill Clinton, Governor David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a gaggle of Kennedys faced the brunt of a bitter wind to honor the former U.S. Senator from New York and presidential candidate.

“New York wouldn’t be the City it is today without the Triborough. The United States wouldn’t be the country it is today without Robert F. Kennedy,” Bloomberg said. “It’s only fitting the naming of a bridge fit the grandeur of its scale.”

Kennedy’s daughter Kerry, a former Queens resident, recalled crossing the bridge with her father regularly, who would point to the neighboring Hell Gate Bridge and playfully tell his children, “Look at the upside-down bridge!”

Clinton argued the best memorial for Kennedy may be a pause to think of the man’s legacy every time one crosses the bridge.

“He moved a generation by reminding us we can be the greatest bridge,” he said.

Still, not everyone felt the urge to eulogize that day. Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) released a statement in light of the ceremony, saying the State and City have more important business to tend to.

“Robert Kennedy was a great man, but this isn’t the time,” Vallone said in a statement. “While one agency that gets money from the state is raising fares and cutting service to the neighborhood at the foot of the bridge, another has somehow found a way to spend millions of dollars on changing the signage of it.”

New York City's Triborough Bridge Renamed to Honor Robert F. Kennedy By Jamie Colby - FOXNews.com

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Forty years after his assassination, Robert F. Kennedy is being honored in New York for his life of service — even as a prophecy he made in the months before his death comes true.

The Triborough Bridge, which connects the New York boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, was renamed during a ceremony Wednesday after the New York senator, who was gunned down in a Los Angeles hotel pantry on the night he won the 1968 California Democratic primary. The bridge was completed in 1936, when Kennedy was 10 years old.

Dignitaries, politicians and family members gathered by the newly christened RFK Bridge to celebrate his life and his contribution to the civil rights movement.

"I was just another college kid who got to watch Robert Kennedy work in the Senate and feel his passion and emotion," said former President Bill Clinton, who attended the ceremony.

RFK, who served as U.S. attorney general in the administration of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, would have turned 83 Thursday. But the timing was significant for another reason, said his daughter, Kerry Kennedy.

"In 1968, he said in 40 years we could have an African-American president. And sure enough, exactly 40 years later, we do, and that is why this bridge really bridges 1968 to 2008," she said.

The ceremony touched an emotional nerve with many present, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Gov. David Paterson and RFK's widow, Ethel Kennedy.

"I am over the moon," she said. "I am walking on air."

Bobby Kennedy was born in Massachusetts — where his younger brother, Ted Kennedy, is still a senator — but he was raised in New York. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964 and was running for the Democratic presidential nomination when he was killed in 1968.

Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, remains imprisoned in California.

Triborough Bridge Renamed After Bobby Kennedy - Howard Beach Times by Nathan Duke - YourNabe.com>

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Astoria's Triborough Bridge has been renamed to honor former U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Photo by Christina Santucci

Gov. David Paterson signed a bill into law last week that renamed the Triborough Bridge, which connects Astoria to the Bronx and Manhattan, after the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), a spokeswoman for the governor said.

The governor signed the bill, sponsored by state Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), on Aug. 5 following recent approval by the state Legislature, the governor's spokeswoman said.

The bridge's new name went into effect immediately, Gianaris said.

The assemblyman said Kennedy had long been an advocate for minority groups, so the renaming of the bridge was geographically significant.

"Bobby Kennedy was not only a great New Yorker, but also a great American," Gianaris said. "As our U.S. senator for a number of years, he had a platform from which he fought the struggle for equality and civil rights. It's appropriate that a bridge that unites diverse communities bears his name. Those of us who represent those neighborhoods that are served by the bridge will be proud to have his name on it."

Kennedy represented New York in the U.S. Senate from 1965-68. He was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign after winning the California primary.

Kennedy's family had long requested that the bridge be renamed in his honor and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed the name change in January, Gianaris said.

The bridge, which can be reached from Hoyt Avenue North in Astoria, is now known as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The structure opened in 1936.

Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.