On this day, November the 21st, in the year of 1964, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, America’s longest suspension bridge, which connects two of the four of New York City’s outer boroughs, Brooklyn and Staten Island, opened for traffic.

Named after the explorer who was the first European to explore the New York Harbor, Giovanni da Verrazzano, and The Narrows, the body of water which the bridge bridges over, the bridge was part of a grander plan to interconnect New York City (and the Tri-state area at large) via highways for vehicular travel.

The bridge spurred population growth in the surrounding area of the boroughs and the boroughs at large.

In 2018, after decades of being misnamed, the bridges name was changed from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, adding an extra “z”, correcting the error (MTA) (NYC Parks and Recreation) (NY Daily News) (Britannica) (Britannica).