The venerable Verrazano-Narrows Bridge turns 50-years-old on Nov. 21, and there are a host of things to do to celebrate the span that has connected Brooklyn to bucolic Staten Island since 1964.
Birthday bash
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is throwing a celebration on Staten Island at 10:30 am on Nov. 21, but Brooklynites can catch some of the action from Bay Ridge’s golden shores.
The party on The Rock includes a 50-gun salute and a boat display by the Fire Department, both of which can be seen from Brooklyn’s Shore Road Promenade if trekking to Staten Island is a bridge too far.
“50th Anniversary Commemoration” at Fort Wadsworth (210 New York Ave. between Drum Avenue and Tompkins Street on Staten Island). Nov. 21 at 10 am. In Brooklyn, go to the Shore Road Promenade at Fourth Avenue.
Historic hoopla
The New York Transit Museum is hosting an exhibit on the bridge through the fall of 2015. The display includes historic photos and sketches, pieces of the bridge’s cable, and a table-sized scale model of the span. Transportation Authority archivist Mary Hedge will lead public tours of the exhibition.
“Spanning the Narrows: The Verrazano Bridge at 50” at the Transit Museum (corner of Schermerhorn Street and Boerum Place in Downtown). Now through fall 2015. Tours at 2 pm on Dec. 5 and 13. $7.
Verrazano vindicated
The parks department has refurbished the Verrazano Memorial Flagstaff at John J. Carty Park and replaced a long-missing relief carving of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first explorer to enter New York Harbor and the bridge’s namesake narrows.
The memorial was built in 1964 and featured a carving of the explorer crafted by Albino Manca that was stolen in the 1980s. The parks department commissioned Greenpoint’s Bedi-Makky Art Foundry to re-cast the image.
As of Wednesday, the department could not affix the statue due to severe cold.
Verrazano Memorial Flagstaff at John J. Carty Park (Fort Hamilton Parkway and 95th Street).
