Longest Suspension Bridge in the Americas

By Linda Tancs

Connecting Brooklyn with Staten Island, New York’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the Americas. Now over 50 years old, the gateway bridges the Narrows, the mile-wide channel at the entrance to New York Harbor. Its span reaches four-fifths of a mile (making it the 11th longest in the world), punctuated by two towers 70 stories tall and four cables spun with enough steel wire to reach halfway to the moon. The bridge is named for 16th century Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to discover New York and Narragansett bays. Eagle eyes will notice the discrepancy in spelling between the bridge and its namesake (the explorer’s surname being spelled with two Z’s). This typo persists since the bridge’s inception, allegedly resulting from an error in the building contract.