A Look Back: Verrazano-Narrows Bridge celebrates its 53rd birthday

With the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge celebrating its 53rd birthday this month, we have decided to look back, this week, at the period of the bridge’s construction. In this photo from the files of this newspaper, the elegant frame of the yet-to-be-completed span, still little more than a skeleton, can be seen in the background while in the foreground the trench being dug for the Gowanus Expressway as it approaches the bridge, can be seen. Construction on the Verrazano started in 1959 and finished in 1964. When it opened, it was the world’s longest suspension bridge.