Verrazano-Narrows sild, Staten Island

Verrazano Narrows Bridge

This web camera in New York shows a city view of Brighton, NY. The Abraham Lincoln High School features in the foreground on the far left of this web camera footage. As the online web camera swivels to the right, you can see the Coney Island Hospital, the William E Grady High School football field and finally the High School itself. The scenery is a mix of concrete and greenery, a juxtaposition very typical of New York City.

In the background online, behind the Abraham Lincoln High School, the famous Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is visible on a clear day in webcam. This magnificent suspension bridge was opened in 1964 and was named after the first documented European explorer to enter the New York Harbor in 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano.

Construction of the bridge

It’s not quite visible on the online web camera, but the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked bridge. The upper deck was opened on November 21, 1964. It cost $320 million dollars at the time, which is roughly equivalent to $240 million dollars today. The lower deck was opened on June 28, 1969.

One of the longest bridges in the world

At the time of its construction, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge you see in web camera,was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It spans 1298 meters or 4360 ft. It’s even longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Since 2017, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan is the world’s longest suspension bridge spanning all of 1,991 meters or 6532 ft.

Positioning of the Ferrazzano-Narrows bridge

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, in the background of this cam online footage, connects Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, NY to Staten Island. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is both the gateway to the New York marathon as well as the New York Harbor. All ship traffic aiming to enter the New York Harbor must pass under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Best spots to view the bridge

Some of the best viewing spots from where you can gaze upon the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge online, is from the Shore Road Park in Brooklyn, the Staten Island East Shore Beaches, and Kaiser Park in  Brooklyn.

Interesting facts

Each of the two towers of the bridge in the live camera, reportedly contains 1 million bolts and 3 million rivets. Each of the four suspension cables contains over 26 000 wires. The length of the bridge needs to compensate for the curvature of the earth; the tops of the towers are roughly 41 mm further apart than the bases of the towers. That means that the line from top to top across the bridge is not parallel to the line from bottom to bottom. In summer, the steel cables of the bridge expand, dropping the roadway to 3.6 meters or 12 ft. lower during summer compared to winter time.

Baltic Live Cam has many live cameras scattered across the continents. On camera online you can view another famous New York bridge – the Willis Avenue Bridge. Moving on to Eastern Europe, you can also view the Vansu Bridge in Riga Latvia on web camera online. There are also several port scenes captured on online camera for more maritime viewing such as the port of Hirtshals in Denmark and the Klaipeda port in Lithuania.