As this sign at the erstwhile JFK Commuter Plaza…otherwise known as “Queens Plaza”, proclaims, the Queensboro Bridge was “renamed” for popular NYC three-term mayor from 1977-1989, Edward I. Koch, in 2011, with the official name now “Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.” But wait…Manhattanites especially have called it the “59th Street Bridge” for decades after its opening in 1909. There’a a lot of reasons to have liked Koch, as he presciently had his own tombstone erected in Uptown Trinity Church, knowing he was unmarried and childless and took no chances on a memorial stone.
New York City and state have a history of renaming infrastructure for which no change was ever asked for, and have mostly been ignored since, such as the Robert F. Kennedy Triboro Bridge, Hugh Carey (Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel, Mario Cuomo (Tappan Zee) Bridge. In 1945, Fiorello LaGuardia got the ball rolling when 6th Avenue was renamed Avenue of the Americas, for the Organization of American States, and its lampposts got a set of metal country medallions that quickly rusted and were mostly removed during a renovation in the early 1990s. In 2022, a new set of medallions were installed.
Can you think of any other renamings that have been ignored? Comments are open.
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6/12/25