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On this day in New York · November 21, 1964

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Opens

For one morning in November, the bridge linking Brooklyn to Staten Island was the longest suspension span on Earth, and it stitched the forgotten borough to the rest of the city for good.

The facts

Opened
November 21, 1964
Main span
4,260 feet, the longest suspension span in the world at the time
Cost
$320 million to build
Construction deaths
Three ironworkers died building it: Paul Bassett, Irving Rubin, and 19-year-old Gerard McKee

On November 21, 1964, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened to traffic across the mouth of New York Harbor, connecting Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn to Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. Designed by Othmar H. Ammann, the same engineer behind the George Washington and Throgs Neck bridges, it replaced a ferry as the only way to reach Staten Island by land from the rest of the city. About 5,000 people turned out for the dedication, where Mayor Robert Wagner helped cut the gold ribbon. The bridge is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who sailed into the harbor in 1524, four decades before Henry Hudson got the credit for finding it.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. a structure of breathtaking beauty and superb engineering

    President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a telegram read by Mayor Robert Wagner at the dedication ceremony, November 21, 1964

    Source: Transportation History

  2. This bridge is not merely a crossing; it's a major lifeline that holds up 1.4 million tons of concrete and 143,000 miles of cable wire.

    Jonathan Morey, senior bridge engineer at WSP, on the bridge's 60th anniversary

    Source: Brooklyn Paper

Why it still matters

The bridge finally gave Staten Island a road connection to the rest of New York City, setting off the borough's postwar building boom and turning what had been the city's quiet ferry-only outpost into a place people actually drove to and from every day.

Sources

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