Who is verrazano bridge named after

In New York Gov. The double-decked six-lane-wide roadway, feet How appeared the name of the bridge. Somewhere along the way, a z got dropped. Kennedy Bridge the former Triborough Bridge. The Italian-Americans of the New York metropolitan area demand that the bridge be renamed with the correct spelling of the explorer's name! Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login.

And even after the bridge was completed, many people refused to use the name Verrazano, instead calling it the Narrows Bridge, or the Brooklyn-Staten Island Bridge. Terms of Use By the time it officially opened the following year, the Verrazano had kept its tribute name to the 16th century European explorer.

The two that are most obvious are Hoffman and Swinburne islands in the Lower Bay. At night, lights pick out the graceful curve of the four great cables, each three feet in diameter, spun from enough steel wire to reach more than halfway to the moon. Vote Now! By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Fifty years later, it remains an engineering marvel. Now there's an effort to fix the spelling of the bridge's name.

Its main span was the longest in the world until the completion of the Humber Bridge in Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, New York. Bay Ridge is a residential neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The naming issue did not encounter any more controversy until , after the assassination of President John F. Its 4,foot 1,metre main span was, until the completion of the Humber Bridge in , the longest in the world.

As long ago as , when a steady parade of steamships bearing immigrants passed through the Narrows—the mile-wide channel at the entrance to New York Harbor—engineers envisioned a great bridge as a gateway to the New World. The 1,metre- 3,foot- span Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, U. It tells of Mohawk Indian ironworkers who made a specialty of walking the high steel and of James J. Braddock, once a world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis took his title , by then a welding machine operator.

Though Verrazano is by no means considered to be a great explorer, his name will probably remain immortal, for on November 21st, , the greatest bridge in the world was named after him. Surprisingly, animals have caused a lot of issues on the Verrazano Bridge. Source: Wikipedia Old-timers still mourn the sundered neighborhoods of Brooklyn, where hundreds of homes were destroyed to make way for the approach, and the sleepy, almost rural character of Staten Island when it was linked to the rest of New York City only by ferryboat.

In the bridge was named in honour of the 16th-century explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, but an orthographic disagreement led to its being spelled with a single z. The Verrazano Bridge, which was designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn to … While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. A few years later, after president Kennedy was assassinated, there were calls to have the under-construction bridge named in his honor, but they failed.

Why was the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge closed Monday? After returning to Europe, Verrazzano made two more voyages to the Americas. On the second, in , he was killed and eaten by the natives of one of the Lower Antilles, probably on Guadeloupe. Giovanni da Verrazzano was born around near Val di Greve, Italy.

Verrazzano was introduced to adventure and exploration at an early age. He first headed to Egypt and Syria, places that were considered mysterious and nearly impossible to reach at the time. During this period, Christopher Columbus , Amerigo Vespucci and Ferdinand Magellan were making names for themselves with their explorations on behalf of Spain and Portugal, and Francis I grew concerned as France fell behind in the exploration of the West. Reports were coming back of riches in the New World, and paired with the idea of expanding his empire overseas, Francis I began planning an expedition on behalf of his country.

Verrazzano and Francis I met between and , and Verrazzano convinced the king that he would be the right man to undertake exploratory voyages to the West on behalf of France; Francis I signed on. Verrazzano prepared four ships, loaded with ammunition, cannons, lifeboats, and scientific equipment, with provisions to last eight months. The Santa Maria and Vittoria were lost in a storm at sea, while the Delfina and the Normanda found their way into battle with Spanish ships.

In the end, only the Delfina was seaworthy, and it headed to the New World during the night of January 17, Like many explorers of the day, Verrazzano was ultimately seeking a passage to the Pacific Ocean and Asia, and he thought that by sailing along the northern coastline of the New World he would find a passageway to the West Coast of North America.

After 50 days at sea, the men aboard the Delfina sighted land — generally thought to be near what would become Cape Fear, North Carolina. Verrazzano first steered his ship south, but upon reaching the northern tip of Florida, he turned and headed north, never losing sight of the coastline. He finally came to rest at what is known today as Newport, Rhode Island.

Verrazzano and his men interacted with the local population there for two weeks, before returning to France in July Verrazzano added greatly to the knowledge base of mapmakers in terms of the geography of the East Coast of North America.

In honor of the famed explorer, the bridge spanning the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island now bears his name. In March , Verrazzano left France on his final voyage, yet again seeking the passage to India after not having found it via a South American voyage the year before.

This turned out to be the last mistake the explorer would ever make.