Name of NYC Bridge Has Been Misspelled for More Than 50 Years

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge crosses New York Harbor. It has done so for more than 50 years. But there is a problem. The name of the bridge is spelled wrong.

The bridge is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano. (Unlike the bridge, his name has two Zs.) He was an Italian explorer. In 1524, he was the first European to explore New York Harbor.

The state office that controls the bridge has said the same thing about the name for years: We know it's wrong, but we're not changing it.

An Expensive Change

Changing the spelling would be expensive. Signs, maps, and websites would all have to be changed.New York's Triborough Bridge was changed to Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008. The change cost $4 million.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964. No one is sure how the error was made. The writer Gay Talese described the building of the bridge in a book. He wrote that in the 1959 building contract, Verrazzano's name was spelled with one Z.

"We're talking about a typo, and everybody let it go," Talese said. "Nobody noticed because nobody really knew who Verrazzano was then."

Trying to Make It Right

Robert Nash is a college student in Brooklyn. He started an online petition to add the second Z. He had the idea when he was taking pictures of the bridge. He noticed the sign with Verrazzano's name and it just looked wrong. He then checked Italian websites for the explorer's name. His suspicions were correct.

"To honor a man and name a bridge after him and not spell his name right?" Nash said. He felt he had to do something.

Nash's mother is Italian. His father is half Italian. He said Italian-Americans everywhere deserve better.

Each year, the world's focus is on the bridge. It is used as the starting point for the New York Marathon.

Mayor de Blasio

Bill de Blasio is mayor of New York City. He is also Italian-American. But the misspelling does not bother him much.

"I will get a task force going on that right away and get back to you," he joked. "As a proud Italian, I need to go back and do my research."