It was an engineering marvel when it opened in the 1960s, but the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge has been spelt wrong ever since.
17:26, UK,Tuesday 02 October 2018
By Sharon Marris, news reporter
A bridge in New York City is to have its name correctly spelt for the first time in more than 50 years.
The Verrazzano-Narrows bridge was named after Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to sail into New York Harbor in 1524.
The bridge, which connects Brooklyn with Staten Island, was opened in the 1960s and was the world's longest bridge of its type at the time.
With 693ft-high towers each weighing around 24,500 tonnes, it was an engineering marvel.
It is unclear how the error originally came about, but it is thought a typo in an original construction contract spelled the bridge's name with one Z and left the bridge stuck with the spelling for decades.
On Monday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that would fix the error in a number of state statutes.
Mr Cuomo said: "The Verrazzano Bridge is a vital transportation artery for millions of Staten Island and Brooklyn residents.
"We are correcting this decades-old misspelling out of respect to the legacy of the explorer and to New York's heritage."
The correction will mean replacing 96 incorrect signs, but politicians say there will be no extra cost to taxpayers.
The bill allows the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to put up new signs "within such time and in such manner as they shall deem appropriate".
A statue of Verrazzano in lower Manhattan and the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge over Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay already use the correct spelling of the name.
Originally published here: https://news.sky.com/story/after-50-years-new-york-fixes-typo-in-bridges-name-11515409
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