It took nearly 14 years and almost 30 lives to complete Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Finished in 1883, it was the longest suspension bridge of the time and the first bridge in Mahattan Island. Brooklyn Bridge with characteristic double-arched towers connects Brooklyn with Lower Manhattan over the East River.
When it opened in 1964, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was the world's longest suspension span. It connects Brooklyn with Staten Island over the mouth of Upper New York Bay in place named after Giovanni da Verrazano, Italian navigator who in 1524 was the first European to sail into what is now New York Harbor.
Verrazano Narrows Bridge is now number six in the world and still the longest suspension bridge in the United States.
