page_title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
section_title: Bills to change bridge's name
hierarchical_section_title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge / Naming / Bills to change bridge's name
caption_attribution_description: On Feb. 5, 2020, crews from MTA Bridges and Tunnels today replaced the first of 19 signs on agency property to feature the revised spelling of the bridge’s name, incorporating an additional ‘z’ in the name Verrazzano. Photo: Patrick Cashin/Metropolitan Transportation Authority
context_page_description: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed Upper New York Bay with Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and is the only fixed crossing of the Narrows. The double-deck bridge carries 13 lanes of Interstate 278, with seven lanes on the upper level and six on the lower level. The span is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first documented European explorer to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River in 1524.
  Engineer David B. Steinman proposed a bridge across the Narrows in the late 1920s, and subsequent proposals were deferred over the next 20 years. A 1920s attempt to build a rail tunnel under the Narrows was aborted, as was another 1930s plan for vehicular tubes underneath the Narrows. Discussion of a tunnel resurfaced in the mid-1930s and early 1940s, but the plans were again denied. In the late 1940s, urban planner Robert Moses championed a bridge across the Narrows as a way to connect Staten Island with the rest of the city. Various issues delayed the start of construction until 1959.
context_section_description: In June 2016, St. Francis College student Robert Nash started a petition to correctly spell Giovanni da Verrazzano's name on the bridge with two "z"s. The petition gained support from politicians including New York State Senators Martin Golden and Andrew Lanza. The petition was also supported by actors and celebrities of Italian heritage, including Robert DeNiro and Tony Gemignani. In December 2016, Senators Golden and Lanza sent letters to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Thomas F. Prendergast, in which they recommended that the bridge's name be spelled correctly. An MTA spokesperson said the agency was reviewing the letter.
  A bill to formally change the bridge's name stalled in 2017, as did another bill in early 2018. In mid-2018, Golden sponsored a New York State Senate bill to change the bridge's spelling to "Verrazzano" with two "z"s. On June 6 of that year, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to change the spelling of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, sending the measure to the New York State Assembly and the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for approval. If the bill was passed, the MTA would modify nearly a hundred road signs at a cost of $350,000. The Assembly passed the bill on June 21, sending the measure to Governor Cuomo with a minor modification. As a cost-saving measure, existing signs would retain the one-"z" spelling, and only new signs would contain the double-"z" spelling. On October 1, 2018, Governor Cuomo signed the bill into law, effectively changing the legal spelling of the bridge to the "Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge".
caption: Installation of new road signs saying Verrazzano with two "z"s in February 2020
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