The mighty Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened to traffic sixty years ago today. The span — once the world’s longest suspension bridge — is still the longest in North America. It carries 1,600 MTA buses every weekday and served a total of 80 million vehicles in 2023.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) marks the anniversary in a news release that looks at the bridge structure and explains the crossing’s regional importance in the East Coast transportation network. MTA adds, “A series of major investments and enhancements have been implemented over several capital plans to adapt to evolving traffic flow and improve road safety, including the replacement and reconfiguration of the upper-level to meet current loads, improve wind resilience, and provide a reversible bus/HOV peak-travel lane. These improvements, along with the conversion to Open Road Tolling in 2017, have enhanced the bridge’s functionality and reduced travel time by up to 15-20 minutes for tens of thousands of daily commuters and bus riders.”
THE CITY offers an in-depth profile of the bridge it calls “an integral part of New York history.”
SILive.com publishes a gallery of photographs from the first 60 years of the bridge’s operation.