Letter: Sound bridge too costly, disruptive
A rendering of a highway sign for a bridge that would have crossed Long Island Sound from Oyster Bay to Rye, a project which was abandoned in 1973. Credit: Newsday / Julia Gaines
A recent letter writer tried to make the case for resuscitating the idea of an extension of Route 135 through Bayville for an over-the-Sound bridge [“Sound bridge would help Long Island,” Dec. 8].
He wrote, “a few people could be moved, and as a result, thousands of people on Long Island would enjoy a safer means of travel and better quality of life.”
These assumptions are ridiculous. When the bridge was discussed in the late 1960s, the projected toll each way was to be $6. The cumulative rate of inflation from January 1970 to this month is 529.2 percent. The cost of tolls would not be affordable, nor would the building of the 6-mile bridge.
As for a few people being moved, the then-proposed route from the end of Route 135 would go through parts of Syosset, East Norwich, Oyster Bay Cove, the Hamlet of Oyster Bay and the very quaint seaside Village of Bayville.
Steve Haar
Bayville
