Steps: 3,521,936
Miles: 1473.66
When it opened in 1964, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was the world's longest suspension span. The ends of the bridge are at historic Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn and Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, both of which guarded New York Harbor at the Narrows for over a century. The bridge was named after Giovanni da Verrazano, who, in 1524, was the first European explorer to sail into New York Harbor.
The bridge is off the picture to the lower right
Its monumental 693 foot high towers are 1 5/8 inches farther apart at their tops than at their bases because the 4,260 foot distance between them made it necessary to compensate for the earth's curvature. Each tower weighs 27,000 tons and is held together with three million rivets and one million bolts. Seasonal contractions and expansions of the steel cables cause the double-decked roadway to be 12 feet lower in the summer than in the winter.
Located at the mouth of upper New York Bay, the bridge not only connects Brooklyn with Staten Island but is also a major link in the interstate highway system, providing the shortest route between the middle Atlantic states and Long Island.
In Brooklyn, the bridge connects to the Belt Parkway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and to the largely residential community of Bay Ridge. On Staten Island, which saw rapid development after the bridge opened in 1964, it joins the Staten Island Expressway, providing access to the many communities in this most rural of the city's five boroughs.
Source
On a clear day, easily seen from the bridge are the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and downtown New York City.
Welcome to Brooklyn.
4 comments:
I'd only been to that area of NY once or twice. I pretty much stayed on the mainland when I lived up there. It reminds me of one of the trips we made. This one was with my family (the other was with the school choir)...the traffic there was horrendous and a taxi that was on our right made a lefthand turn and nearly smashed into the passanger side of our car. Mom freaked and we ended up leaving. She never went back again unless she was travelling with a group and in a bus ...and was tranquillized as they went in...
New York City (meaning downtown in Manhattan) has a ton of great things to see and do in it!
Fortunately I don't need to drive there - I can get a train or a bus and practically door-to-door at that and be there faster than I could drive there.
And yeah, the traffic downtown is horrid. The only place I know that is worse is the Washington DC beltway! Especially when the gubbermint finks all leave work for the weekends at 2:30 PM on Thursdays...
I've only been to New York City once in my life, when I went to a conference for work. We traveled by bus (thank goodness!) and only spent an afternoon in the city. Our conference was in Poughkeepsie (a beautiful area!) I'd love to go back and tour the city properly and go to some broadway shows. All in good time...
After Terri completed his basic training at Cape May, New Jersey, his first assignment was at the Coast Guard base on Governors Island, New York. He used to travel back and forth from the base to home on a bus. He served on the USCGC Morgenthau while stationed at Governors Island. The Statue of Liberty could be seen from the base.
Here's a link with information about Governors Island if you're intested.
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