Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, Brooklyn

Verrazzano Narrows Bridge is an iconic suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. Located in New York’s Lower New York Bay, the Narrows Bridge connects Upper New York Bay to Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s the only Narrows crossing that is permanently in place. Interstate 278 travels on 7 lanes of the upper deck and 6 lanes of the lower deck of the double-deck bridge. For the first time, a European explorer entered New York Harbor and the Hudson River in 1524, naming the span after Giovanni da Verrazzano.

In the late 1920s, engineer David B. Steinman proposed building a bridge over the Narrows, but the project was shelved for the following two decades. The Staten Island Tunnel project of the 1920s and the Narrows tunnel project of the 1930s were both shelved. In the mid-1930s and early 1940s, there was renewed interest in building a tunnel, but the idea was shot down.

A bridge across the Narrows to connect Staten Island to the rest of New York City was advocated by Robert Moses in the late 1940s. The project was put on hold until 1959 due to a variety of issues.

The bridge was designed by Othmar Ammann, Leopold Just, and other engineers at Ammann & Whitney and opened in November 1964, with a lower deck added in 1969 to alleviate excessive traffic levels. As of 2014, the city of New York had begun reconstruction of the bridge’s two levels at a cost of $1.5 billion.

This bridge has a central span of 4,260 ft. The Humber Bridge in the United Kingdom overtook it as the world’s longest suspension bridge in 1981. The main span of the bridge is the longest in the Americas and ranks as the 18th longest in the globe.

Due to a contract error, the name Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was misspelled when the bridge was formally designated in 1960. The name was legally restored in 2018. To combat traffic congestion, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge charges tolls in both directions, however, only westbound drivers paid a toll from 1986 until 2020.

Hand of Glory Tattoo

Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, Brooklyn NY

Luna Park, Brooklyn, NY