[3] Flanked to the west by high steep bluffs of the Palisades, it forms something of a natural lake on the Hudson about 10 miles (16 km) north of Manhattan.

It was formerly crossed by the Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge, opened in 1955 and about 3.1 miles (5.0 km) long, connecting Nyack and Tarrytown.

The Tappan Zee is mentioned several times in Washington Irving's famous short story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

In Frederik Pohl's 1977 Hugo award-winning novel Gateway, the main character Robinette Broadhead has "a summer apartment overlooking the Tappan Sea and The Palisades Dam."

Jazz pianist Bob James named one of the tracks from his 1977 album BJ4, in addition to his record label he founded, after the Tappan Zee.