Gay Talese Wishes the Verrazano a Happy 50th

Gay Talese, journalist and author of The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (Bloomsbury USA, 2014), revisits the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on its 50th anniversary.

→Events:  Gay Talese will talk about The Bridge on 11/19 7PM at The Strand 828 Broadway ⋅ on 11/20 at 6:30 at the Museum of the City of New York ⋅ and on 11/22 at 4PM at the Barnes & Noble on Staten Island 2245 Richmond Street

Hear archival audio from the opening of the bridge 50 years ago:

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge spans the entrance to New York Harbor, linking Staten Island, left, and Brooklyn, right.

(MTA Bridges and Tunnels, Special Archive/Bloomsbury)

Staten Island was the site of its own share of the destruction as bridge construction began.

(MTA Bridges and Tunnels, Special Archive/Bloomsbury)

The Punk

(Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos/Bloomsbury)

The Cook

(Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos/Bloomsbury)

Hard Nose Murphy

(Bruce Davidson/ Magnum Photos/Bloomsbury)

The wheel, seen here up close, spins cables across the span.

(MTA Bridges and Tunnels, Special Archive/Bloomsbury)