The Narrows

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( vər-ə-ZAH-noh; also referred to as the Verrazzano Bridge, locally as the Verrazzano, and formerly as the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge or Narrows Bridge) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only fixed crossing of the Narrows. The double-deck bridge carries 13 lanes of Interstate 278: seven on the upper level and six on the lower level. The span is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, who in 1524 was the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River. Engineer David B. Steinman proposed a bridge across the Narrows in the late 1920s, but plans were deferred over the next twenty years. A 1920s attempt to build a Staten Island Tunnel was aborted, as was a 1930s plan for vehicular tubes underneath the Narrows. Discussion of a tunnel resurfaced in the mid-1930s and early 1940s, but the plans were again denied. In the late 1940s, urban planner Robert Moses championed a bridge across the Narrows as a way to connect Staten Island with the rest of the city. Various problems delayed the start of construction until 1959. Designed by Othmar Ammann, Leopold Just, and other engineers at Ammann & Whitney, the bridge opened on November 21, 1964, and a lower deck in 1969 to alleviate high levels of traffic. The New York City government began a $1.5 billion reconstruction of the bridge's two decks in 2014. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has a central span of 4,260 feet (1.30 km; 0.81 mi). It was the longest suspension bridge in the world until it was surpassed by the Humber Bridge in the United Kingdom in 1981. The bridge has the 18th-longest main span in the world, as well as the longest in the Americas. When the bridge was officially named in 1960, it was misspelled "Verrazano-Narrows Bridge" due to an error in the construction contract; the name was officially corrected in 2018. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge collects tolls in both directions, although only westbound drivers paid a toll from 1986 to 2020 in an attempt to reduce traffic congestion.

Fort Wadsworth Light is a 1903 lighthouse built atop Battery Weed on Staten Island in New York Harbor. The light illuminates the Narrows, the entrance to the harbor. It is located under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Fort Wadsworth Light was part of the transfer of Fort Wadsworth from the Navy to the National Park Service in March 1995 as part of Gateway National Recreation Area. Its light was visible for 14 nautical miles (26 km; 16 mi). The lantern was possibly moved from Fort Tompkins Light in 1903. When the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1965 the lighthouse became obsolete. Dark for many years, it was restored and converted to solar power by volunteers in 2005.

Fort Tompkins Light was a lighthouse located on Staten Island, New York City, on the west side of the Narrows in New York Bay.The lighthouse was established by Fort Tompkins Military Base in 1828 to guide ships to Staten Island. The lighthouse did not keep records due to its close proximity to land. Consequently, very little record survives beyond those kept by the lighthouse board. The Board archives illustrate the precarious location of the lighthouse. On more than one occasion the lighthouse became a target and various explosions caused the glass in the lantern room to break. They moved the lighthouse in 1871 out of battery range and it was no longer near the water. Its first light in the new location was in 1872. A fourth order Fresnel lens was installed in 1900. The light was an alternate flashing red and white with an interval between flashes of 10 seconds. Three years later the lighthouse was deactivated. The lighthouse's duties were given to the Fort Wadsworth Light in 1903. Soon after, the lighthouse was abandoned. It no longer exists. The tower stood on a Victorian-style home with a white dwelling, Mansard roof and a black lantern.

Battery Weed is a four-tiered 19th century fortification guarding the Narrows, the main approach from the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. Located on the Staten Island waterfront on the west shore of the Narrows, directly across from Fort Hamilton and the now-destroyed Fort Lafayette in Brooklyn, the fort was intended to protect New York from attack by sea. When built, it was named Fort Richmond, as was a previous fort on the site.

Fort Lafayette was an island coastal fortification in the Narrows of New York Harbor, built offshore from Fort Hamilton at the southern tip of what is now Bay Ridge in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The fort was built on a natural island known as Hendrick's Reef. Construction on the fort began during the War of 1812 and was completed in 1822. The fort, originally named Fort Diamond after its shape, was renamed in 1823 to celebrate the Marquis de La Fayette, a hero of the American Revolution who would soon commence a grand tour of the United States. During the American Civil War, the island fort became a prison, mostly for civilians viewed as disloyal to the Union; the fort became known as an "American Bastille." The fort was demolished in 1960 to make room for the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge; the Brooklyn-side bridge tower now occupies the fort's former foundation site.

Fontbonne Hall is an all-girls, private, Roman Catholic high school in Brooklyn, New York. It was established in 1937 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and is located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. In 2013, in celebration of its 75th year, school leadership noted that throughout its history, Fontbonne had educated nearly 10,000 women who “have become noted doctors, lawyers, engineers, leaders in business and the arts, educators, mothers and even, like Sister Ita Ford, class of 1957, martyrs for their cause.”Making reference to the boroughs of New York City, Fontbonne's students predominantly come from southwest Brooklyn, southern Queens and Staten Island.

The National American Indian Memorial or North American Indian Memorial was a proposed monument to Native Americans to be erected on a bluff overlooking the Narrows, the main entrance to New York Harbor. The major part of the memorial was to be a 165-foot-tall (50 m) statue of a representative American Indian warrior atop a substantial foundation building housing a museum of native cultures, similar in scale to, but higher than, the Statue of Liberty several miles to the north. Ground was broken to begin construction in 1913 but the project was never completed and no physical trace remains today.

Fort Tompkins is a fort on Staten Island in New York City, within what is now Fort Wadsworth at the Narrows. Fort Tompkins (and its predecessor of the same name) guarded the landward approaches to other forts in the area from 1808 through circa 1898. The current fort was built 1847-1861, and was operational as a fort until superseded by new defenses circa 1898. It is now part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. It is the last remaining of four forts in New York State named Fort Tompkins.

A Patriot redoubt built in June 1776, located on Signal Hill at The Narrows on Staten Island. Site of an earlier 1663 blockhouse that stood until at least 1808, preceded by one built by Dutch settler David Pieterszen de Vries in 1636 and destroyed in the Peach Tree War of 1655. Taken by the British in July 1776 and by July 1779 a redoubt with gun platforms for 26 cannon was built. Two months later, six 24-pounders and four 18-pounders were recorded on hand. In 1782 the fort had five bastions and several barbette batteries. Evacuated by the British in 1783 at the end of the Revolution. In 1806 Flagstaff Fort was demolished and Fort Tompkins was built on the site, reportedly enclosing the 1663 blockhouse with red sandstone. That fort along with others grew into Fort Wadsworth. The site is now part of the Gateway National Recreation Area of the National Park Service.

Fort Wadsworth is a former United States military installation on Staten Island in New York City, situated on The Narrows which divide New York Bay into Upper and Lower halves, a natural point for defense of the Upper Bay and Manhattan beyond. Prior to closing in 1994 it claimed to be the longest continually garrisoned military installation in the United States. It comprises several fortifications, including Fort Tompkins and Battery Weed and was given its present name in 1865 to honor Brigadier General James Wadsworth, who had been killed in the Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War. Fort Wadsworth is now part of the Staten Island Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, maintained by the National Park Service.

John Paul Jones Park is a public park located in Fort Hamilton, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The park borders Shore Road, Fourth Avenue, 101st Street, and Fort Hamilton Parkway. The park is managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which acquired the property from the city of Brooklyn in 1897.John Paul Jones Park is named after the American patriot and naval commander of the same name, who was known for his leadership in the American Revolution. He is often referred to as "the father of the Navy." John Paul Jones Park is home to several memorials from various events in American history: Rodman gun: a massive, black, twenty-inch bore that was created in 1864 by artilleryman Thomas Jackson Rodman. It was originally situated in Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, but was presented to the park by the United States Military in 1900. Today it dominates the park along with cannon balls that surrounds the landscape and is part of the Civil War Memorial. Revolutionary War Memorial: contains a bronze tablet that is inscribed into a granite boulder. This plaque was granted by the Long Island Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1916 to commemorate the first resistance made to British arms in New York in August 1776. Dover Patrol Naval War Memorial: features a monument that was gifted by Sir Ashton Webb in 1931, from England after World War I. It serves as a dedication to the Dover Patrol for its service and comradeship in the American Naval Force in Europe during the first World War. The monument has a pyramid-shaped copper capstone at the top of the obelisk. In addition to these memorials is a 70 foot tall flag pole that once belonged to a Navy destroyer. It was added to the park in 1980 alongside a plaque that reads "in honor of John Paul Jones, the father of the Navy."

Buono Beach is a small shorefront public park in the New York City borough of Staten Island, in the neighborhood of Rosebank, at the foot of Hylan Boulevard. Buono Beach borders New York Harbor and is adjacent to the park containing the Alice Austen House. The park contains a local veterans' memorial fountain. Buono Beach was named after Matthew "Giggy" Buono, a South Beach resident and graduate of New Dorp High School who died in the Vietnam War. Prior to its renaming in 1988, Buono Beach was called Penny Beach. Although the origin of that name is unknown, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation surmises that the beach was named for either the original name of Hylan Boulevard (Pennsylvania Avenue), or because the beach was once a "lovers' lane" where couples would toss coins into the harbor while making wishes.The park was damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and a large section of the park along Edgewater Street was closed for several years due to damage, but it reopened in 2016.