Bridges of NYC Trivia Quiz

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is a double decked suspension bridge that connects the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island. It stands over a strait called The Narrows which connects New York Harbor to the Atlantic Ocean. The bridge was named after Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485-1528), who sailed through The Narrows in 1524.

The Verrazzano Bridge was designed by Swiss-American engineer Othmar Ammann (1879-1965), who also designed the Bayonne, Whitestone, Throgs Neck and George Washington Bridges. It was completed in 1964 and became the world's longest suspension bridge overtaking the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. It later lost that title in 1981 when the Humber Bridge in England was completed. The Verrazzano Bridge has traditionally been the starting point of the New York City Marathon.

The Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge is a vertical lift bridge that crosses Jamaica Bay between southern Brooklyn and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. It sits on the far southern end of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, one of the borough's main roads which is also connected to the Manhattan Bridge on the northern end.

The central portion of the Marine Parkway Bridge can be raised to allow tall boats to pass beneath it. The bridge was completed in 1937 and was named after the nearby Marine Park in Brooklyn. In 1978, the Marine Parkway Bridge would be dedicated to Hall of Fame baseball player and manager Gil Hodges (1924-1972), who spent the majority of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was also the manager of the New York Mets when they won their first World Series championship in 1969.

The iconic Brooklyn Bridge is located in northern Brooklyn and connects to the Financial District in southern Manhattan. It stands above the East River adjacent to the Manhattan Bridge, which you can see behind the stone tower in the foreground of the photograph. The Brooklyn Bridge was designed by German American engineer John A. Roebling (1806-1869) and is considered to be a hybrid suspension/cable stayed bridge.

Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began in 1870 after John Roebling tragically died after suffering an accident while surveying the bridge's final location. When it was completed in 1886, the bridge was referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge as well as the East River Bridge. It eventually received its current name of simply Brooklyn Bridge in 1915.

The Throgs Neck Bridge is one of two suspension bridges (the other being the Whitestone Bridge) that directly links northern Queens to the Bronx. It is the younger of the two having been completed in 1961. The Throgs Neck Bridge stands above an area where the East River empties out into the Long Island Sound. It may be difficult to tell the difference between the two bridges. The Throgs Neck is the easternmost bridge and its towers are slightly shorter than the Whitestone's.

The name of the bridge comes from the Throggs Neck peninsula in the Bronx where the northern entrances to both the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges are located. The Throggs Neck peninsula itself was named after a British settler by the name of John Throckmorton (1601-1684). The name of the peninsula can sometimes be seen spelled with either one or two G's, while the bridge officially has only one.

The Manhattan Bridge was completed in 1909. The blue suspension bridge sits adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge at the northern end of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. It connects to the neighborhood of Chinatown in Manhattan. The Manhattan Bridge carries road vehicles, pedestrians and several lines of the New York City Subway as well.

The Manhattan Bridge was designed by Latvian American engineer Leon Solomon Moisseiff (1872-1943). He would also contribute to the construction of the George Washington Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Moisseiff's reputation would later be tarnished as he had designed the ill-fated Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the state of Washington which collapsed in 1940 only several months after its completion.

The Bayonne Bridge is an arch bridge that crosses the Kill Van Kull between northern Staten Island and city of Bayonne in New Jersey. The photograph in the quiz was taken in 2008 showing the bridge's original roadway. This road was determined to be too low for large ships to pass under and engineers needed to install a new roadway at a higher level. The project was completed in 2019.

At the time of its completion in 1931, the Bayonne Bridge was the longest bridge of its type in the world. The famous Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, which was completed a year later, fell a few feet short of the record. The Bayonne Bridge would eventually be dethroned in 1977 by the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia.

The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge (aka 59th Street Bridge) was completed in 1909, several months before the Manhattan Bridge. It is a double decked cantilever bridge that consists of four towers. It stands above the East River linking the neighborhood of Long Island City in Queens to 59th Street in Midtown Manhattan.

Adjacent to the bridge on the Manhattan side is a tramway which ferries pedestrians from Manhattan Island to Roosevelt Island (part of the Manhattan borough), which sits in the middle of the East River between Manhattan and Queens. In 2011, the Queensboro Bridge was dedicated to Ed Koch (1924-2013), who served as Mayor of New York City from 1978-1989.

The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge is the second of two suspension bridges that directly links the Bronx to northern Queens along with the Throgs Neck Bridge. It is the westernmost and the older of the two having been completed in 1939.

The Whitestone Bridge was partially named after the neighborhood of Whitestone located at the bridge's southern terminus in Queens. Despite being called the Whitestone, it and the Throgs Neck are both painted a greyish green color. The Whitestone Bridge can be seen when watching a baseball game held at the nearby Citi Field as the bridge sits beyond the stadium's scoreboard.

The Outerbridge Crossing is the southernmost bridge in all of New York City. It is a cantilever bridge which stands above the Arthur Kill between southern Staten Island and the city of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. It was named after a man named Eugenius Outerbridge. Since it would have been awkward to name it the Outerbridge Bridge, the word Crossing was used instead.

The Outerbridge Crossing was designed by Canadian-American engineer John A. L. Waddell, who also designed the old Goethals Bridge, which provided a link between north-western Staten Island and Elizabeth, New Jersey. The old Goethals Bridge (whose design was similar to the Outerbridge) was replaced with twin cable stayed bridges which were completed in 2017/2018.

The George Washington Bridge is one of (if not the) busiest bridges in the world. It stands above the Hudson River between Fort Lee, New Jersey and the northern peninsula of Manhattan. It was of course named after the first President of the United States. Like the Verrazzano Bridge, the GWB is a double decked suspension bridge, however its lower deck wasn't added on until 1959.

When it was completed in 1931, the George Washington Bridge was declared to be the longest suspension bridge in the world. This title would not last as in 1937 it was surpassed by the Golden Gate Bridge. Its towers were initially supposed to have been covered in concrete but due to the Great Depression it was not economically feasible.

The Henry Hudson Bridge is a steel arch bridge that (despite its name) does not cross the Hudson River. It instead stands over the Spuyten Duyvil Creek which flows between Manhattan's northern peninsula and the Bronx connecting the Hudson River to the Harlem River.

Completed in 1938, the Henry Hudson Bridge was designed by American engineer David B. Steinman, who is also credited for designing the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan. The bridge was named after English explorer Henry Hudson (1565-1611), who sailed up the river that also bears his name in 1609.

The Williamsburg Bridge is another suspension bridge that spans the East River linking Brooklyn and Manhattan. The bridge was completed in 1903 is named after the neighborhood of Williamsburg which serves as its terminus on the Brooklyn side.

The Williamsburg Bridge was designed by American engineer Henry Hornbostel who is credited with designing over 200 other structures (bridges, buildings and monuments) across the entire country. The Williamsburg Bridge is yet another New York City bridge that was once considered to be the longest bridge of its type in the world, overtaking the Brooklyn Bridge.