Crossing the Bridge

From the marathon website -- sounds a little scary, but cool!

After months of training, you’ll soon take your first steps in the ING New York City Marathon. And what a setting! There you’ll be, atop the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, with 36,000 other runners. Take time to marvel at this wonder of engineering and ponder these interesting facts:

The bridge is 13,700 feet or 2.7 miles long, including approaches. It is the longest span in North America, the seventh longest worldwide.

At mid-channel, the upper deck of the bridge is approximately 260 feet above the Narrows, and the lower deck is approximately 237 feet above the water. Seasonal expansion and contraction of the cables lowers the height of the deck by 12 feet in the summer. No matter what the temperature, the center of the bridge is the highest point of the marathon.

The bridge towers are 693 feet tall. Each weighs 27,000 tons and is held together by 3 million rivets and 1 million bolts. The towers are 1 5/8ths inches farther apart at the top than at the bottom to account for the curvature of the Earth.

Car drivers pay $9 to drive across the bridge; Staten Island residents receive a discount.
The bridge is named for Giovanni da Verrazano, the first European to sail in New York Harbor. He arrived in 1524.

Pedestrians and cyclists are normally banned from the bridge. The only exceptions are the ING New York City Marathon and Five Borough Bike Tour. This year, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is featured on the participant T-shirt and the official medal given to all finishers.

The first New York City Marathon to use Staten Island and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge as its start was in 1976.