#verrazzano

[i35e]

[supplyside]

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

[whattolearntoday]

A bit of January 17th history...

1524 - Beginning of Giovanni de Verrazzano’s voyage to find a passage to China

1773 - Captain James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle 

1821 - Mexico permits Moses Austin and 300 US families to settle in Texas, after his death he leaves it to his son Stephen

1893 - Queen Liliuokalani is deposed by an American coup, Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic (pictured)

1946 - United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting

1987 - US President Reagan signs secret order permitting covert sale of arms to Iran

1991 - Operation Desert Storm begins with US led coalition forces bombing Iraq during the Gulf War

[railwayhistorical]

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

Here’s the grand bridge, as seen from the Brooklyn side. I had no idea about the second “Z” controversy—it was spelled wrongly by accident at the time of its construction, but getting it set right took nearly sixty years. (This latter aspect should not surprise us as Italian-Americans have long-suffered discrimination, due in part to their arrival in New York and the United States after the Dutch, English, and Irish.)

The fabulous structure, which spans the narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island, is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, who may be the first European explorer who sailed into New York Harbor in 1524. Opened in 1964, the suspension bridge was the world’s longest for nearly twenty years before being eclipsed by one in the UK.

These two views were made by Richard Koenig, from a spot along the Belt Parkway, in the spring of 1991.

[benji-smash]

No time for regrets

[teregetettszennyes]

The Brooklyn side of the Verrazzano Bridge (Bayridge)

[captainflirt]

The age of exploration: Life on the open seas. A collaboration between History.com and Column Five.

[dre--nyc]

Verrazano Narrows Bridge