The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened 60 years ago today, on Nov. 21, 1964, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn and forever changing the histories of both boroughs.
However, one question about the bridge is why are there no trains running alongside the motor vehicles?
The bridge opened 11 years after the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway Company, better known as SIRT, closed two of its three lines. The South Beach and North Shore branches both ceased transit operations on March 31, 1953.
However in the mid-1950s, when the bridge was still in the planning phase, Robert Moses, chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and often regarded as one of the most influential people in the city’s history, steadfastly said the new bridge would not have transit. Officials said adding a transit line to the bridge could cost upwards of $500 million.
“Dumping capital costs of city rapid transit and private suburban train commutation on the backs of automotive owners and drivers who pay their way is no solution of urban rail transportation,” the Staten Island Advance quoted Moses as saying in April 1956.
“A rapid transit system which is already in the red and can’t afford to build the 2nd avenue subway in Manhattan and the Brooklyn and Queens extensions certainly has no money for extravagant Staten Island connections,” Moses said, per the report. “…Who would pay rail deficits while we watch Staten Island grow?”
Moses also indicated that transit lines in Brooklyn, where the Staten Island lines would connect, could not handle additional trains.
