Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 2009
Coordinates	40°36′23″N 74°02′44″W / 40.60639°N 74.04556°W / 40.60639; -74.04556
Carries	13 lanes (7 upper, 6 lower) of I-278
Crosses	The Narrows
Locale	New York City (Staten Island–Brooklyn), New York, U.S.
Other name(s)	Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Verrazzano Bridge Narrows Bridge
Maintained by	MTA Bridges and Tunnels
Characteristics
Design	Suspension bridge
Total length	13,700 ft (4,176 m)
Width	103 ft (31 m)
Height	693 ft (211 m)
Longest span	4,260 ft (1,298 m)
Clearance above	15 ft (4.57 m) (upper level) 14.4 ft (4.39 m) (lower level)
Clearance below	228 ft (69.5 m) at mean high water
History
Designer	Othmar Ammann, Leopold Just and other engineers at Ammann & Whitney
Construction start	August 13, 1959; 65 years ago (1959-08-13)
Opened	November 21, 1964; 60 years ago (1964-11-21) (upper level) June 28, 1969; 55 years ago (1969-06-28) (lower level)
Statistics
Daily traffic	202,523 (2016)[1]
Toll	(Both directions) As of August 6, 2023[update]: $6.94 (New York E-ZPass users outside Staten Island) $2.75 (Staten Island residents E-ZPass) $11.19 (Tolls By Mail and non–New York E-ZPass) $9.11 (Mid-Tier NYCSC E-Z Pass)
Location

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (/ˌvɛrəˈzɑːnoʊ/ VERR-ə-ZAH-noh; also referred to as the Narrows Bridge, the Verrazzano Bridge, and simply the Verrazzano) is a suspension bridge connecting the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only fixed crossing of the Narrows. The double-deck bridge carries 13 lanes of Interstate 278: seven on the upper level and six on the lower level. The span is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, who in 1524 was the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River.

Engineer David B. Steinman proposed a bridge across the Narrows in the late 1920s, but plans were deferred over the next twenty years. A 1920s attempt to build a Staten Island Tunnel was aborted, as was a 1930s plan for vehicular tubes underneath the Narrows. Discussion of a tunnel resurfaced in the mid-1930s and early 1940s, but the plans were again denied. In the late 1940s, urban planner Robert Moses championed a bridge across the Narrows as a way to connect Staten Island with the rest of the city. Various problems delayed the start of construction until 1959. Designed by Othmar Ammann, Leopold Just, and other engineers at Ammann & Whitney, the bridge opened on November 21, 1964. The lower deck opened in 1969 to accommodate increasing traffic loads. The bridge was refurbished in the 1990s and again in the 2010s and 2020s.

The bridge has a central span of 4,260 feet (1.30 km; 0.81 mi). It was the longest suspension bridge in the world until it was surpassed by the Humber Bridge in the UK in 1981. The bridge has the 18th-longest main span in the world, as well as the longest in the Americas. When the bridge was officially named in 1960, it was misspelled "Verrazano-Narrows Bridge" due to an error in the construction contract; the name was officially corrected in 2018. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge collects tolls in both directions, although only westbound drivers paid a toll from 1986 to 2020 in an attempt to reduce traffic congestion.