Elected officials, members of the Kennedy family and other heavyweights gathered today to officially rename the Triborough Bridge—which connects Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx—the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The Triborough opened in 1936 and includes three bridges, a viaduct and 14 miles of approach roads connecting the boroughs, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

   In January, then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed the name change, calling Kennedy a “bridge builder” in a metaphoric sense because he dreamed of a country where “all individuals work diligently to help the poorest among us to life themselves out of poverty.”

   Robert F. Kennedy was a U.S. senator from New York between 1965 and 1968, when he was assassinated during his campaign for president. He was U.S. attorney general under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and resigned after his brother was assassinated in 1963. In New York, Robert Kennedy created programs for underprivileged and disabled children.

   Robert Kennedy is the subject of a new lesson plan in New York, called “Speak Up, Speak Out: Robert F. Kennedy, Champion of Social Justice,” which was developed by New York State United Teachers in collaboration with Gov. David Paterson’s office and the state Education Department. The impetus for the project was a call from Kerry Kennedy, the seventh of RFK’s 11 children, to NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi.

   “Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy lives on in countless individuals who fight for justice around the world—and in every child who is inspired by his legacy to, ‘speak up, speak out,’” Kerry Kennedy wrote in a letter to educators around the state.

   In a letter about the RFK education project, Paterson called him a great American with a humanitarian vision. He cited a quote from RFK: “Each time a man stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope…”

(Photos: MTA, Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.)