Daniel Lambraia Discusses: Construction History of the Verrazano

More than 550,000 vehicles cross the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (connecting New York City and Staten Island) each week. Many of the travelers making that journey are not even aware of the span's history.

Opened to traffic in November of 1964, the bridge is the highlight of the careers of structural engineer Othmar Ammann and Robert Moses, and was built for $2.6 billion in today's dollars.

The bridge itself was named in honor of Italian explorer Giovanni Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter the Narrows, a channel measuring a mile-wide at the entrance to New York Harbor. Today, the span is the largest suspension bridge in the Americas, 11th in the world, measuring 4,200 feet.

A bridge across the Narrows was first proposed by the engineer David B. Steinman in the late 1920s, but the idea remained on hold for much of the next two decades until Moses took up the torch of building the bridge as a means of joining Staten Island with the rest of New York City in the late 1940s. However, various issues caused a delay in getting construction started until 1959.

Survey work for the bridge began in January of 1959 and actual construction work began on Aug. 14, 1959. The writer Gay Talese chronicled the story of the bridge's construction in his work, The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which was published in 1964 and in several articles in the New York Times.

Taking almost five years to complete, the bridge opened with fanfare and serves as the entrance to New York Harbor. As such, all ships making their way to the Port of New York and New Jersey are required to pass underneath the span and must themselves be built to meet the clearance beneath it.

When construction was finished, the cost for a ride across the Verrazano was 50 cents, or $4 in today's currency. Drivers pay $15 to make the same journey today.

The Verrazano Bridge is owned by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Company bondholders, who financed its construction more than 50 years ago. It is operated by the TBTA's successor, MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The bridge is currently undergoing a massive rehabilitation project to ensure it is safe and environmentally friendly for years to come.