title: Consumer protection

text: The Nigerian government has a duty to protect its people from any form of harm to human health through the use and purchase of items to meet daily needs. In light of this, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), whose aim is to protect and enhance consumers' interest through information, education, and enforcement of the rights of consumers was established by an Act of Parliament to promote and protect the interest of consumers over all products and services. In a nutshell, it is empowered to eliminate hazardous & substandard goods from the market. Provide speedy redress to consumer complaints and petition arisen from fraud, unfair practice and exploitation of the consumer.


title: Consumer protection

text: On 5 February 2019, the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, assented to the new Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Bill, 2018. Thus, the bill became a law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and binding on entities and organizations so specified in the Act.


title: Consumer protection

text: The long title of the Act reads: "This Act establishes the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal for the promotion of competition in the Nigerian market at all levels by eliminating monopolies, prohibiting abuse of dominant market position and penalizing other restrictive trade and business practices."


title: Consumer protection

text: The Act further repealed the hitherto Nigerian Consumer Protection Council Act and transferred its core mandate to the new Commission.


title: Consumer protection

text: Modern Taiwanese law has been heavily influenced by the European civil law systems, particularly German and Swiss law. The Civil Code in Taiwan contains five books: General Principles, Obligations, Rights over Things, Family, and Succession. The second book of the Code, the Book of Obligations, provided the basis from which consumers could bring products liability actions prior to the enactment of the CPL.


title: Consumer protection

text: The Consumer Protection Law (CPL) in Taiwan, as promulgated on 11 January 1994, and effective on 13 January 1993, specifically protects the interests and safety of customers using the products or services provided by business operators. The Consumer Protection Commission of Executive Yuan serves as an ombudsman supervising, coordinating, reporting any unsafe products/services and periodically reviewing the legislation.


title: Consumer protection

text: According to the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Association and the American Chamber of Commerce, in a 1997 critical study, the law has been criticized by stating that "although many agree that the intent of the CPL is fair, the CPL's various problems, such as ambiguous terminology, favoritism towards consumer protection groups, and the compensation liability defense, must be addressed before the CPL becomes a truly effective piece of legislation that will protect consumers"


title: Consumer protection

text: The main consumer protection laws in the UK are the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.


title: Consumer protection

text: The United Kingdom has left the European Union, but during the transition period (until end of 2020) the UK was still bound by directives of the European Union. Specifics of the division of roles between the EU and the UK are detailed here. Domestic (UK) laws originated within the ambit of contract and tort but, with the influence of EU law, it is emerging as an independent area of law. In many circumstances, where domestic law is in question, the matter is judicially treated as tort, contract, restitution or even criminal law.


title: Consumer protection

text: Consumer Protection issues were dealt with by the Office of Fair Trading before 2014. Since then, the Competition and Markets Authority has taken on this role.


title: Consumer protection

text: In the United States a variety of laws at both the federal and state levels regulate consumer affairs. Among them are the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth in Lending Act, Fair Credit Billing Act, and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act. Federal consumer protection laws are mainly enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Justice.


title: Consumer protection

text: At the state level, many states have adopted the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act including, but not limited to, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and Nebraska. The deceptive trade practices prohibited by the Uniform Act can be roughly subdivided into conduct involving either a) unfair or fraudulent business practice and b) untrue or misleading advertising. The Uniform Act contains a private remedy with attorneys fees for prevailing parties where the losing party "willfully engaged in the trade practice knowing it to be deceptive". Uniform Act §3(b).


title: Consumer protection

text: Missouri has a similar statute called the Merchandising Practices Act. This statute allows local prosecutors or the Attorney General to press charges against people who knowingly use deceptive business practices in a consumer transaction and authorizes consumers to hire a private attorney to bring an action seeking their actual damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.


title: Consumer protection

text: Also, the majority of states have a Department of Consumer Affairs devoted to regulating certain industries and protecting consumers who use goods and services from those industries. For example, in California, the California Department of Consumer Affairs regulates about 2.3 million professionals in over 230 different professions, through its forty regulatory entities. In addition, California encourages its consumers to act as private attorneys general through the liberal provisions of its Consumers Legal Remedies Act.


title: Consumer protection

text: State and federal laws provide for "cooling off" periods giving consumers the right to cancel contracts within a certain time period for several specified types of transactions, potentially including transactions entered into at home, and warranty and repair services contracts.


title: Consumer protection

text: Other states have been the leaders in specific aspects of consumer protection. For example, Florida, Delaware, and Minnesota have legislated requirements that contracts be written at reasonable readability levels as a large proportion of contracts cannot be understood by most consumers who sign them.


title: Consumer protection

text: Considering the state of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law, MGL 93A, clearly highlights the rights and violations of consumer protection law in the state. The chapter explains what actions are considered illegal under the law for which a party can seek money damages from the other party at fault. Some examples of practices that constitute a Chapter 93A violation would be when:


title: Consumer protection

text: The laws under MGL 93A prohibits activities that relate to overpricing to a consumer and use of "Bait and Switch" techniques. A court will award the plaintiff the damages if they can prove the (1) defendant knowingly and intentionally violated the MGL 93A agreement or (2) the defendant would not "grant relief in bad faith" knowing that the actions violated the MGL 93A agreement. Additionally, failure to disclose refund/ return policy, warranties and critical information about the product/service are all in violation of the legislation, and can result in triple damages and lawyer fees.


title: Miles Davis discography

text: Miles Davis was an American trumpeter, bandleader and musical composer. His major (without bootlegs, etc.) discography consists of at least 61 studio albums, 39 live albums, 46 compilation albums, 26 box sets, 4 soundtrack albums, 57 singles and 3 remix albums.


title: Miles Davis discography

text: Davis' initial appearances on record were mainly as a member of bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker's quintet from 1944 through 1947 and released on the Savoy label. Davis made his debut as a leader in the 1946 sessions featuring Parker, pianist John Lewis, bassist Nelson Boyd and drummer Max Roach. Prestige Records released Davis' debut album, "The New Sounds", in 1951. He recorded many studio albums under the Prestige label from 1951 through 1956, as well as "Blue Moods", issued by Debut Records in 1955, and three sessions for Blue Note Records. The earliest Davis music released was recorded from April 4, 1945 through August 14, 1947, and reissued in CD format by Savoy Records under the title "First Miles".


title: Miles Davis discography

text: From 1949 through 1950, Davis recorded twelve tunes with a nonet consisting of other noted jazz musicians including arranger Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, John Lewis, Max Roach and Kenny Clarke. The arrangements for that group were scored for instruments rarely used in jazz such as French horn and tuba. These recordings, which were labeled cool jazz and eventually appeared on the album "Birth of the Cool" in 1957 by Capitol Records, marked an important influence on the future of jazz. He later signed to Columbia and released "'Round About Midnight" on March 18, 1957. His acclaimed 1959 album "Kind of Blue" is generally stated to be the best-selling jazz album of all time, although the data are not conclusive. The follow-up album in 1960, "Sketches of Spain", went gold.


title: Miles Davis discography

text: He formed his Second Great Quintet in 1964. With the release of "Miles in the Sky", Davis permanently abandoned hard bop, instead adopting jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz. In this era he released the studio album "Bitches Brew", which was certified platinum, culminating in the long electric jams from the mid-1970s released as "Pangaea", "Agharta", and "Dark Magus". After a six-year retirement, Davis released albums under the Columbia and Warner Bros. labels during the period between 1981 and 1991. These recordings combined jazz with popular music genres as he turned more toward the mainstream. He finished his music career with "Doo-Bop", in which he experimentally combined jazz with hip-hop, his discography ultimately being extensively sampled in hip-hop, such as with beats from his 1972 album "On the Corner".


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Verrazzano-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 Upper New York Bay 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.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: 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 $1.5billion reconstruction of the bridge's two decks in 2014.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has a central span of . 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.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: A bridge across the Narrows had been proposed as early as 1926 or 1927, when structural engineer David B. Steinman brought up the possibility of such a crossing. At the time, Staten Island was isolated from the rest of New York City, and its only direct connection to the city's other four boroughs was by the Staten Island Ferry to South Ferry in Manhattan, or by ferries to 39th and 69th Streets in Brooklyn. In 1928, when the chambers of commerce in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, and Staten Island announced that the Interboro Bridge Company had proposed the future construction of the "Liberty Bridge" to the United States Department of War. The bridge's towers would be high and it would cost $60million in 1928 dollars. In November 1929, engineers released plans for the Liberty Bridge spanning the Narrows, with 800-foot-tall towers. It was hoped that the new construction would spur development on Staten Island, along with the Outerbridge Crossing and the Bayonne Bridge, which were under construction at the time.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Liberty Bridge would carry vehicles from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to an as-yet-undetermined location on Staten Island. On the Brooklyn side, the city planned to connect the Liberty Bridge to a "Crosstown Highway", spanning Brooklyn and Queens and connecting to the proposed Triborough Bridge in northwestern Queens. The city also envisioned a possible connection to the preexisting Manhattan Bridge, connecting Downtown Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan. However, a vote on the planned Liberty Bridge was never taken, as it was blocked by then-Congressman Fiorello H. La Guardia, who believed that a public necessity should not be provided by private interests.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: A prior attempt to link Brooklyn and Staten Island, using the Staten Island Tunnel, had commenced in 1923 but was canceled two years later. That tunnel would have extended New York City Subway service from Brooklyn to Staten Island. This proposal was also revived with the announcement of the Liberty Bridge. One of the alternative proposals had the subway tunnel going from St. George, Staten Island, to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, before continuing to Governors Island and then Lower Manhattan. Simultaneously, engineers proposed a set of vehicular tunnels from Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, to 97th Street, Brooklyn. The tubes were being planned in conjunction with the Triborough Tunnel (the modern-day Queens Midtown Tunnel), which would connect Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The city appropriated $5million for the tunnels in July 1929, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad also pledged funding for the vehicular tunnels. Planning for the vehicular tubes started that month.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce simultaneously considered all three projects—the bridge, the vehicular tunnels, and the subway tunnel. Community groups on both sides of the Narrows disagreed on which projects should be built first, if at all. Residents of Bay Ridge opposed any plans involving a bridge because its construction would almost definitely require the demolition of part of the neighborhood. Boring work for the vehicular tunnels started in November 1930. The twin tunnels, projected to be completed by 1937, were to connect Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island with 86th Street in Brooklyn once they were completed. In January 1932, construction of these tunnels was put on hold indefinitely due to a lack of money. The construction work did not go beyond an examination of shoreline on the Brooklyn side.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In February 1933, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill authorizing the construction of a suspension bridge across the Narrows. With this approval, the Interboro Bridge Company hoped to start constructing the bridge by the end of the year, thereby creating jobs for 80,000 workers. Structural engineer Othmar H. Ammann, who was building the Triborough Bridge, Midtown Tunnel, and Golden Gate Bridge at the time, showed interest in designing the proposed Narrows bridge, which would be the world's longest bridge if it were built. The city approved the construction of a rapid transit tunnel under the Narrows in December 1933. This tunnel was approved in conjunction with the proposed Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel connecting Red Hook with Lower Manhattan.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In April 1934, the War Department announced its opposition to the Narrows Bridge's construction. The War Department's opposition to the bridge plan was based on the fact that a bridge could create a blockage during wartime, a rationale it gave for opposing a Brooklyn-Battery Bridge connecting Red Hook, Brooklyn, with Lower Manhattan. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did not have a public position regarding the Narrows Bridge plan, other than a request that it be allowed to operate the future bridge. Following the War Department's announcement that they would oppose the Narrows bridge, private interests began studying the feasibility of a tunnel under the Narrows.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In 1936, the plan for a Narrows crossing was brought up again when now-New York City mayor La Guardia gained authorization to petition the U.S. Congress for a bridge across the Narrows. Under the new plan, the proposed bridge would charge tolls for motorists, and its $50million cost would be paid off using federal bonds. La Guardia preferred a tunnel instead, and so the next year he requested the New York City Tunnel Authority to review the feasibility of such a crossing. The New York City Planning Commission was amenable to constructing either a bridge or a tunnel across the Narrows, and in 1939, put forth a plan to expand New York City's highway system. In March of the same year, as a bill for the Battery Bridge was being passed, Staten Island state legislators added a last-minute amendment to the bill, providing for a Narrows bridge. The Narrows crossing was not included in the final version of the Planning Commission's plan, which was approved in 1941.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In 1943, the New York City Board of Estimate allocated $50,000 toward a feasibility study of the tunnel. By this time, Bay Ridge residents now opposed the tunnel plan as well, because they feared that the tunnel's construction would lower the quality of life in that neighborhood. After the war ended in 1945, the Planning Commission estimated that construction of the Narrows Tunnel would cost $73.5million. However, by then, La Guardia had turned against the tunnel, saying that "it is not my time" to construct the tunnel.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The cancellation of plans for the Narrows tunnel brought a resurgence of proposals for a bridge across the Narrows. In September 1947, Robert Moses, the chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), announced that the city was going to ask the War Department for permission to build a bridge across the Narrows. Moses had previously created a feasibility study for a Narrows tunnel, finding that it would be much cheaper to build a bridge. Moses and mayor William O'Dwyer both supported the Narrows Bridge plan, which was still being referred to as "Liberty Bridge". The city submitted its request to the War Department in July 1948, and a commission composed of three United States Armed Forces branches was convened to solicit the public's opinions on the proposed span.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: U.S. Representative Donald Lawrence O'Toole, whose constituency included Bay Ridge, opposed the proposal for the bridge because he believed it would damage the character of Bay Ridge, and because the bridge might block the Narrows in case of a war. He cited a poll showing that for every Bay Ridge resident who supported the bridge's construction, 33 more were opposed. The U.S. military approved the bridge proposal in May 1949, over the vociferous opposition of Bay Ridge residents, on the condition that construction start within five years. By that time, plans for the span had been finalized, and the project only needed $78million in financing in order to proceed. This financing was not set to be awarded until 1950, when the Battery Tunnel was completed. Preliminary plans showed the bridge as being above the mean high water level, enough for the RMS "Queen Mary" to pass under it.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Moses and acting Port Authority Chairman Bayard F. Pope were agreeable to letting either of their respective agencies construct and operate the proposed Narrows Bridge, as long as that agency could do so efficiently. In 1954, the two agencies started conducting a joint study on the logistics of building and constructing the bridge. Because of restrictions by the TBTA's bondholders, construction could not begin until at least 1957. Frederick H. Zurmuhlen, the Commissioner of Public Works, estimated that the Narrows Bridge would cost $200million total. He encouraged the TBTA to start construction on the bridge as soon as possible in order to reduce congestion on East River crossings to the north. Staten Islanders viewed the project cautiously, since the Narrows Bridge would provide a connection to the rest of the city, but could also cause traffic congestion through the borough. Moses had only a positive view of the bridge's proposed effects on Staten Islanders, saying that it was vital for the borough's future.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In May 1954, the Army's permit for starting construction on the Narrows Bridge lapsed. The Army granted a two-year extension for the start of construction. In a measure passed in March 1955, the city gained control over the approval process for several tasks related to the Narrows bridge's construction, including land acquisition. A little more than a month later, New York governor W. Averell Harriman signed a $600million spending bill authorizing the construction of the Narrows Bridge; the construction of the Throgs Neck Bridge between Queens and the Bronx; and the addition of a second level to the George Washington Bridge between Manhattan and New Jersey. Later that year, it was announced that the Narrows Bridge would be part of an expansion to the Interstate Highway System. Although a study on the viability of adding transit service to the Narrows Bridge was commissioned in early 1956, Moses rejected the idea of adding subway tracks onto the new bridge, saying that it would be too costly. In April of that year, New Jersey governor Robert B. Meyner signed a bill that allowed the Port Authority to build the Narrows Bridge and lease it to the TBTA, who would operate the bridge. The TBTA would buy the bridge from the Port Authority in 1967 as part of the agreement.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: On the Brooklyn side, the Narrows Bridge was originally supposed to connect to the Circumferential (Belt) Parkway, but in early 1957, Harriman vetoed a bill that stipulated that the main approach connect to the Belt Parkway. By May 1957, an updated location for the Brooklyn anchorage had been agreed on. The anchorage was now to be located at Fort Lafayette, an island coastal fortification built next to Fort Hamilton at the southern tip of Bay Ridge. Moses also proposed expanding Brooklyn's Gowanus Expressway and extending it to the Narrows Bridge by way of Seventh Avenue, which would require cutting through the middle of Bay Ridge. This proposal drew opposition from the community, who wanted the approach to follow the Belt Parkway along the Brooklyn shore. These opponents said that the Seventh Avenue alignment would displace over 1,500 families. In February 1958, the New York State Legislature approved a bill to change the Brooklyn approaches back to Belt Parkway, which was almost identical to the bill Harriman had vetoed. However, the city approved the Seventh Avenue bridge approach in August 1958. The next month, mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. said that the city was committed to building a bridge across the Narrows, but was not committed to the construction of the Seventh Avenue approach. In response, Moses wrote to Wagner that any continuing delays would cause the bridge to be canceled. The bridge's cost had now risen to $320million.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: After holding a hearing for concerned Bay Ridge residents, the Board of Estimate affirmed the Narrows Bridge plan in October 1958, without any objections. At the same time, it rejected plans for a tunnel under the Narrows, as well as a bridge or tunnel from Brooklyn directly to Jersey City, New Jersey. The Board was set to vote on the Seventh Avenue approach in mid-December, but the federal government stated that it would only agree to the bridge's construction if the Seventh Avenue approach had 12 lanes, with six on each level. The federal government was already paying for two highway improvements on both sides of the proposed bridge: the Clove Lakes Expressway (Staten Island Expressway) on Staten Island, and the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn. On December 31 of that year, the Board of Estimate voted to approve plans for the Seventh Avenue approach, having delayed that vote several times.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The approval of the Seventh Avenue approach angered Bay Ridge residents since the construction of the approach would displace 7,500 people. Opposition in Staten Island was far smaller. More than twice as many people were being displaced there, but Staten Island stood to benefit from a better connection to the rest of the city. Thus, the bridge's announcement was welcomed and it sparked a rise in real-estate prices on the island. As the controversy progressed, Steinman brought up a competing proposal to build a bridge between Brooklyn and New Jersey directly. Nelson Rockefeller, the Republican candidate for governor of New York, initially supported Steinman's proposal to build a bridge to New Jersey, but Moses later persuaded Rockefeller to endorse the bridge to Staten Island.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The State Legislature drafted a bill in an effort to change the Brooklyn approach's location to Belt Parkway. However, now-governor Rockefeller vetoed the Belt Parkway bill, and in March 1959, the Board of Estimate officially condemned land along Seventh Avenue to make way for the Gowanus Expressway extension to the Narrows Bridge. The only tasks remaining before the start of construction were to finalize the design of the Narrows Bridge, and to speed up the construction schedule to meet a 1964 deadline. In April 1959, the bridge was officially renamed after the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano. This sparked a controversy because the proposed bridge's name only had one "z" while the explorer's name had two "z"s.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Surveying work for the -Narrows Bridge began in January 1959. The official construction on the bridge began on August 14, 1959, with a groundbreaking ceremony on the Staten Island anchorage. Those in attendance included New Jersey governor Meyner, New York City mayor Wagner, and TBTA chairman Moses. Although Rockefeller had been invited to the event, neither he nor Assembly speaker Joseph F. Carlino showed up. In December 1959, the TBTA was put in charge of funding and building the bridge. To raise money for construction, Rockefeller signed a bill that would remove the 4% ceiling on the interest rates for the securities that the TBTA was selling to pay for the bridge. This ceiling would be lifted until June 1965. In essence, this meant that the TBTA could sell securities at much higher interest rates to raise the $320million that was needed.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Othmar Ammann was named as the senior partner for the project. Other notable figures involved chief engineer Milton Brumer; project engineers Herb Rothman and Frank L. Stahl; design engineer Leopold Just; Safety Engineer Alonzo Dickinson, and engineer of construction John West Kinney. Meanwhile, John "Hard Nose" Murphy supervised the span's and cables' construction.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Before starting actual work on the bridge, the TBTA destroyed the structures at the future locations of the anchorages. The agency acquired of the within Fort Hamilton, in return for paying for a $12million renovation of the Army installation and giving up of land in Dyker Beach Park. A 1,000-ton World War I monument on the Brooklyn side, within the path of the future Seventh Avenue approach, was placed atop rolling logs and shifted . The right-of-way for the Seventh Avenue approach was also being cleared, and despite initial opposition to the clearing work, all of the residents within the approach's path eventually acquiesced to moving elsewhere. To prevent contractors from delaying work on the expressways on either side of the bridge, Moses warned them of steep fines if the expressways were not completed by the time the bridge was finished.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: An anchorage was built on each side of the Narrows, with each anchorage measuring long by wide, and containing a combined of steel and concrete. Each anchorage contained sixty-six large holes for the cables. The bases of each anchorage are built on glacial sands, reaching below ground level on the Brooklyn side, and below ground level on the Staten Island side. Foundation work for the -Narrows Bridge was well underway by 1960, as visitors were able to see the anchorages. A concrete workers' strike in mid-1961 threatened the timely completion of the Staten Island anchorage, which had only been partially filled with concrete. This strike lasted several months and affected many projects under the city.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: As construction on the anchorages proceeded, two watertight caissons were sunk into the channel close to either shoreline, so that the bridge's suspension towers could be built atop each caisson. The bases of each caisson consisted of sixty-six circular openings each in diameter, arranged in a six-by-eleven grid. Shafts of reinforced concrete would be built along the inner rim of each opening, and once each section of shaft reached above water level, cranes with clamshell buckets would dig the sand and mud inside each shaft before sinking the shafts deeper into the water. The Staten Island side's caisson was sunk into the water, and necessitated the dredging of of sand and assorted muck. This caisson required of concrete, and in March 1961, it became the first of the two caissons to be sunk. The Brooklyn side's caisson required even more work, since it was deep, displaced of muck, and used of concrete. Once the caissons were sunk completely, the shafts inside each caisson were filled with water, and the bases of the caissons were covered by a sheet of reinforced concrete. The process of constructing the anchorages and caissons took just over two years, and it was complete by the end of 1961.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Afterward, two separate companies constructed the modules that would make up the suspension towers. The Staten Island tower was built by Bethlehem Steel, and the Brooklyn tower was built by the Harris Structural Company. The first piece of the towers, a 300-foot piece of the tower on the Staten Island side, was lifted into place in October 1961, and this tower was topped out by September 1962. The Brooklyn tower started construction in April 1962. When the towers were fully erected, workers began the process of spinning the bridge's cables. The American Bridge Company was selected to construct the cables and deck. The cable-spinning process began in March 1963, and took six months, since of bridge cables had to be strung 104,432 times around the bridge. The main cables were hung on both sides of the span, and then suspender cables were hung from the bridge's main cables. The main cables were fully spun by August.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In late 1963, builders started receiving the rectangular pieces that would make up the roadway deck. The components for the sixty 40-ton slabs were first created in an assembly line in Jersey City. Then, these components were combined in a Bayonne steelworks from the bridge site, and after the pieces of each slab were assembled, they were floated to the Narrows via barge. Each piece measured high by approximately wide and long. These pieces of the deck were then hung from the suspender cables. The first piece of the deck was lifted onto the bridge in October 1963. By early 1964, the span was nearly finished, and all that remained was to secure the various parts of the bridge. By this point, plans for new development on Staten Island were well underway, and tourists had come to observe the construction of the -Narrows Bridge. The bridge had been scheduled to open in 1965, but as a result of the faster-than-anticipated rate of progress, the TBTA decided to open the bridge in November 1964. In preparation for the -Narrows Bridge's opening, the TBTA fully repainted the structure. The construction process of the bridge had employed an average of 1,200 workers a day for five years, excluding those who had worked on the approaches; around 10,000 individuals had worked on the bridge throughout that five-year period.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Three men died during the construction of the bridge. The first fatality was 58-year-old Paul Bassett, who fell off the deck and struck a tower in August 1962. Irving Rubin, also 58 years old, died in July 1963, when he fell off of the bridge approach. The third worker who died was 19-year-old Gerard McKee, who fell into the water in October 1963, after slipping off the catwalk. After McKee's death, workers participated in a five-day strike in December 1963. The strike resulted in temporary safety nets being installed underneath the deck. These nets had not been provided during the four years prior to the strike.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The construction of the bridge was chronicled by the writer Gay Talese in his 1964 book "The Bridge: The Building of the -Narrows Bridge". He also wrote several articles about the bridge's construction for "The New York Times". The book also contains several drawings by Lili Réthi and photographs by Bruce Davidson.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Staten Island approach to the -Narrows Bridge was the first part of the new project to be completed, and it opened in January 1964. The upper deck was opened on November 21, 1964, at a cost of $320 million (equivalent to $ billion in present dollars). Politicians at all levels of the government, from Brooklyn Borough President Abe Stark to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, wrote speeches paying tribute to the -Narrows Bridge. The opening ceremony was attended by over 5,000 people, including 1,500 official guests. Several dignitaries, involving the mayor, the governor, and the borough presidents of Brooklyn and Staten Island, cut the gold ribbon. They then joined a motorcade to mark the official opening of the bridge. A 50-cent toll was charged to all motorists crossing the bridge. The Bridge's opening was celebrated across Staten Island. Moses did not invite any of the 12,000 workers to the opening, so they boycotted the event and instead attended a mass in memory of the three workers who died during construction.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The opening was accompanied by the release of a commemorative postage stamp, which depicted a ship sailing underneath the new span. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) created a bus route across the bridge to connect Victory Boulevard in Staten Island with the Bay Ridge–95th Street subway station in Brooklyn. This bus service initially saw low patronage, with only 6,000 daily passengers using the route. Five days after the -Narrows Bridge opened, the ferry from Staten Island to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, stopped running, as it was now redundant to the new bridge.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Within the first two months of the bridge's opening, 1.86million vehicles had used the new crossing, 10% more than originally projected, and this netted the TBTA almost $1million in toll revenue. The Goethals Bridge, which connected New Jersey to the Staten Island Expressway and the Bridge, saw its daily average use increase by 75%, or approximately 300,000 trips total, compared to before the Narrows Bridge opened. The Holland Tunnel from New Jersey to Manhattan, and the Staten Island Ferry from Staten Island to Manhattan, both saw decreased vehicle counts after the bridge opened. In summer 1965, Staten Island saw increased patronage at its beaches, facilitated by the opening of the new bridge. By the time of the bridge's first anniversary, 17million motorists had crossed the -Narrows Bridge, paying $9million in tolls. The bridge had seen 34% more trips than planners had projected. Conversely, 5.5million fewer passengers and 700,000 fewer vehicles rode the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Bridge was the last project designed by Ammann, who had designed many of the other major crossings into and within New York City. He died in 1965, the year after the bridge opened. The -Narrows Bridge was also the last great public works project in New York City overseen by Moses. The urban planner envisioned that the and Throgs Neck Bridges would be the final major bridges in New York City for the time being, since they would complete the city's expressway system.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Although the bridge was constructed with only one six-lane roadway, Ammann had provided extra trusses to support a potential second roadway underneath the main deck. These trusses, which were used to strengthen the bridge, were a design alteration that was added to many bridges in the aftermath of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse in 1940. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge became so popular among motorists that in March 1969, the TBTA decided to erect the lower deck at a cost of $22million. The Verrazzano Bridge had not been expected to carry enough traffic to necessitate a second deck until 1978, but traffic patterns over the previous five years had demonstrated the need for extra capacity. By contrast, a lower deck on the George Washington Bridge, connecting New Jersey and Upper Manhattan, had not been built until 31 years after the bridge's 1931 opening. The new six-lane deck opened on June 28, 1969. Originally, the Verrazzano Bridge's Brooklyn end was also supposed to connect to the planned Cross-Brooklyn Expressway, New York State Route 878, and JFK Airport, but the Cross-Brooklyn Expressway project was canceled in 1969.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: On June 26, 1976, to celebrate the United States' 200th anniversary, workers placed a very large U.S. flag on the side of the Verrazzano Bridge. The flag, which measured , was described in "The New York Times" as being the size of "a football field and a half" and billed as the world's largest flag. At the time, it was the largest U.S. flag ever made. The flag was supposed to withstand wind speeds of , but it ripped apart three days later, when there was a wind speed of . The flag had been stuck against the bridge's suspender cables, so any slight wind would have caused the cables to make tears in the flag. A second flag was created in 1980 for the July 4 celebration that year. This flag was even larger at (an area of ). The new flag was placed along a steel grid so that the suspender cables would not rip it apart. Architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable derided the new flag as a "simple-minded, vainglorious proposal" and asked, "Does anyone really want to spend $850,000 to upstage the Statue of Liberty?"


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The TBTA stopped collecting tolls for Brooklyn-bound drivers on the Verrazzano Bridge in 1986 and doubled the toll for Staten Island-bound drivers. This was a result of a bill introduced by Guy V. Molinari, the U.S. representative for Staten Island, as part of an initiative to reduce traffic that accumulated at the toll booth on Staten Island. The one-way toll was initially intended to be part of a six-month pilot program, but resulted in permanent changes to traffic flows on the Verrazzano Bridge. The crossing saw more Brooklyn-bound traffic and less Staten Island-bound traffic as a result. This unidirectional collection remained in effect through 2020, when two-way tolls were restored.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Beginning in 2008, all 262 of the mercury vapor fixtures in the bridge's necklace lighting were replaced with energy-efficient light-emitting diodes. This retrofit was completed in 2009, years before LED street lights were installed in the rest of the city.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge's name was originally spelled with one "z". The "" name dates to 1960 when governor Rockefeller had signed the bill authorizing the bridge's name as such. A bill to formally change the bridge's name to the variant with two "z"s was introduced by college student Robert Nash in 2016, but it stalled in early 2018. The New York State Senate voted to change the name of the bridge in June 2018, and the name change was officially signed into law that October.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In 2014, the city began a $1.5billion reconstruction project on the bridge. At the time, it was expected to take up to 25 years. The first phase, which cost $235million and lasted until 2017, included replacing the existing upper deck sections with new orthotropic deck sections, removing the divider on the upper deck, and adding a seventh lane on the upper deck, which was to be used as a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane. The ramps within the Belt Parkway interchange were also rearranged to allow for a ramp to be constructed for the new HOV lane on the upper deck. The parts for this deck were ordered from China because the parts that the MTA required were no longer manufactured in the United States.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: After the upper deck was replaced, parts of the lower deck are to be replaced, but this necessitates the closure of the lower deck during construction. Hence, the MTA opted to replace the upper deck first to add more capacity. The upper level's new HOV lane opened on June 22, 2017. Simultaneously, the MTA dismantled the Staten Island-bound toll booths to speed up westbound traffic. This work was done in advance of the reconstruction of tracks around Penn Station, which severely limited rail service into that station and created more vehicular traffic at crossings to Manhattan. The MTA accelerated some components of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge's reconstruction during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City in 2020, rebuilding the westbound approach ramp from the Gowanus Expressway and adding a fourth lane along that ramp. Long-term plans also call for the installation of a bicycle and pedestrian path on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is owned by Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority bondholders who paid for the bridge at its construction. It is operated by the TBTA, which is an affiliate agency of the MTA, using the business name MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The bridge carries Interstate 278, which continues onto the Staten Island Expressway to the west and the Gowanus Expressway to the northeast. The Verrazzano, in combination with the Goethals Bridge and the Staten Island Expressway, created a new way for commuters and travelers to reach Brooklyn, Long Island, and Manhattan by car from New Jersey.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: At the time of opening, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world; its 4,260-foot center span, between the two suspension towers, was longer than the Golden Gate Bridge's center span. Despite being only slightly longer than the Golden Gate Bridge, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge could carry a 75% greater load than the former could. In 1981, the Verrazzano Bridge was surpassed by the Humber Bridge in England, which has a center span of , as the world's longest suspension bridge.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The upper and lower levels are supported by trusses underneath each roadway, which stiffen the bridge against vertical, torsional, and lateral pressure. The anchorage on the Staten Island side contains a facility for heating cinders that are used to de-ice the bridge deck during winter.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Because of thermal expansion of the steel cables, the height of the upper roadway is lower in summer than in winter. The Narrows is the only entry point for large cruise ships and container ships that dock in New York City. As a result, they must be built to accommodate the clearance under the bridge. At mean high water, that clearance is . The RMS "Queen Mary 2", one such vessel built to Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge specifications, was designed with a flatter funnel to pass under the bridge, and has of clearance under the bridge during high tide.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Each of the two suspension towers, located offshore, contains around 1 million bolts and 3 million rivets. The towers contain a combined of metal, more than three times the of metal used in the Empire State Building. Because of the height of the towers () and their distance from each other (), the curvature of the Earth's surface had to be taken into account when designing the bridge. The towers are not parallel to each other, but are farther apart at their tops than at their bases. When built, the bridge's suspension towers were the tallest structures in New York City outside of Manhattan. The diameters of each of the four main suspension cables is . Each main cable is composed of 26,108 wires amounting to a total of in length.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Numerous birds nest or roost on the bridge, most notably breeding peregrine falcons. The falcons nest at the top of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge's towers, as well as on the Throgs Neck and Marine Parkway Bridges. As the falcons are endangered, the city places bands on each bird and examines the birds' nesting sites each year. The falcons were discovered on the top of the Verrazzano Bridge in 1983, though they had started breeding there several years prior.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: During the planning stages, the bridge was originally named simply the "Narrows Bridge". The co-naming of the bridge for Verrazzano (with two "z"s) was controversial. It was first proposed in 1951 by the Italian Historical Society of America when the bridge was in the planning stage. After Robert Moses turned down the initial proposal, the society undertook a public relations campaign to re-establish Giovanni da Verrazzano's largely forgotten reputation and to promote the idea of naming the bridge for him. The society's director, John N. LaCorte, successfully lobbied several governors of states along the U.S.'s East Coast to proclaim April 17, the anniversary of Verrazzano's arrival in the harbor, as Verrazzano Day. LaCorte then approached the TBTA again but was turned down a second time. The explorer's name had previously been suggested for the George Washington Bridge, located several miles north, in 1931.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Italian Historical Society later successfully lobbied to get a bill introduced in the New York State Assembly to name the bridge for the explorer. After the introduction of the bill, the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce joined the society in promoting the name. In April 1958, governor W. Averell Harriman announced that he would propose naming the Narrows Bridge after Verrazzano in honor of the explorer's voyage to the New York Harbor in 1524. His successor, Nelson Rockefeller, put his support behind the one-"z" "" name in April 1959, saying that it was the Americans' standard way of spelling the explorer's name. According to Gay Talese, the one-"z" name was bolstered by the fact that it appeared on the bridge's first construction contracts in 1959; this incorrect spelling persisted in all subsequent references to the bridge.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Although the "" name was not finalized yet, "The New York Times" noted that the Staten Island Ferry boat carrying dignitaries to the bridge's August 1959, groundbreaking ceremony was named the "Verrazzano". The "Times" further stated that Harriman and mayor Wagner had respectively proposed a "Verrazzano Bridge" and proclaimed a "Verrazzano Day". The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce opposed the Verrazzano name altogether, saying that the proper name of the bridge should be "Staten Island Bridge" because there was also a "Brooklyn Bridge", a "Manhattan Bridge", a "Queens Bridge", and a "Bronx Bridge". The Italian Historical Society was reportedly perplexed about the opposition to the "" name. In response to the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce's opposition, the TBTA offered to add a hyphen between "" and "Narrows".


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Rockefeller signed the "" name into law in March 1960, which officially changed the name of the Narrows Bridge to "-Narrows Bridge". The naming issue did not encounter any more controversy until 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This prompted a series of suggestions to rename structures, monuments, and agencies across the United States after the late president. A petition to rename the Bridge for Kennedy received thousands of signatures. In response, LaCorte contacted the president's brother, United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who told LaCorte that he would assure that the bridge would keep the "" name. Ultimately, the -Narrows Bridge kept its name, while Idlewild Airport in Queens was renamed after Kennedy.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In part due to discrimination against Italian-Americans, the bridge's official name was widely ignored by local news outlets at the time of the dedication. Some radio announcers and newspapers omitted any reference to Verrazzano, referring to the bridge as the Narrows Bridge, or the Brooklyn–Staten Island Bridge. The society continued its lobbying efforts to promote the name in the following years until the name became firmly established. Another ethnic slur for the bridge was its nickname as the "Guinea Gangplank", referring to the Italian-Americans who subsequently moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island. The Italian Historical Society's published references to the bridge's name all contained two "z"s.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In June 2016, St. Francis College student Robert Nash started a petition to spell Giovanni da Verrazzano's name on the bridge correctly, with two "z"s. The petition gained support from politicians including New York state senators Martin Golden and Andrew Lanza. In December 2016, Golden and Lanza sent letters to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Thomas F. Prendergast, in which they recommended that the bridge's name be spelled correctly. An MTA spokesperson said the agency was reviewing the letter.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: A bill to formally change the bridge's name passed the New York State Senate in 2017 before being defeated in the New York State Assembly in early 2018. In mid-2018, Golden sponsored a State Senate bill to change the bridge's spelling to "Verrazzano" with two "z"s. On June 6 of that year, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to change the spelling of the -Narrows Bridge, sending the measure to the New York State Assembly and the office of New York governor Andrew Cuomo for approval. If the bill was passed, the MTA would modify nearly a hundred road signs at a cost of $350,000. The Assembly passed the bill on June 21, sending the measure to Cuomo with a minor modification. As a cost-saving measure, existing signs would retain the one-"z" spelling, and only new signs would contain the double-"z" spelling. On October 1, 2018, Cuomo signed the bill into law, effectively changing the legal spelling of the bridge to the "Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge". The first signs with the corrected spelling were installed in February 2020.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: As of April 11, 2021, drivers pay $10.17 per car or $4.28 per motorcycle for tolls by mail/non-NYCSC E-Z Pass. E-ZPass users with transponders issued by the New York E‑ZPass Customer Service Center pay $6.55 per car or $2.85 per motorcycle. Mid-Tier NYCSC E-Z Pass users pay $8.36 per car or $3.57 per motorcycle. All E-ZPass users with transponders not issued by the New York E-ZPass CSC pay Toll-by-mail rates.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Staten Island Resident Rebate Program provides a discounted rate of $2.75 to registered residents of Staten Island who use E-ZPass. In the event that the Resident Rebate Program is discontinued, the effective toll for Staten Island residents with E-ZPasses would be set at $3.68. Until April 2021, Staten Island residents could request an E-ZPass Flex; when three or more people were in a passenger vehicle, they could travel at a reduced rate of $1.70. Non-residents do not get the rebated or discounted rates. A bill that passed in the New York State Senate in May 2019 would give the discounted rate to Brooklyn residents with E-ZPass who cross at least 10 times per month. The discount would only apply to non-commercial vehicles.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Prior to the implementation of two-way tolling, the undiscounted tolls for passenger cars were higher than for most other tolled crossings in the U.S. The tolls from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge grossed the MTA $417million in 2017, and more than 85 percent of motorists paid a discounted toll rate.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: An urban legend has it that tolls were to be abolished once the bridge's construction bonds were paid off, but this has been debunked by the "Staten Island Advance". Originally, all drivers paid the same toll to cross the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Staten Island residents were the only residents of New York City who had to pay a toll in order to enter their home borough, since all four of Staten Island's vehicular crossings collected tolls. This put Staten Island motorists at a financial disadvantage compared with drivers who lived in other boroughs. A bill to reduce the tolls for Staten Islanders was introduced in the New York City Council in 1975. Governor Mario Cuomo signed another law to give Staten Island residents discounted tolls in 1983, after years of petitioning and opposition from his two predecessors.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: From its opening until 1986, the toll was collected in both directions. In 1985, U.S. Representative Guy V. Molinari co-sponsored a bill that would require the MTA to collect the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge's toll in the Staten Island-bound direction only. This came after Staten Island residents had complained about pollution from idling vehicles. In December of that year, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that prohibited the MTA from collecting tolls from Brooklyn-bound vehicles, under penalty of a loss of highway funding. Accordingly, in March 1986, the MTA started a pilot program where it charged a $3.50 toll for Staten Island-bound vehicles rather than charging a $1.75 toll in both directions. The pilot program was extended to six months, but it was controversial due to the dubious benefits involved. The new toll plan not only caused a drop in revenues, but also caused congestion in Manhattan and Brooklyn and air pollution in Manhattan. Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, which connected to the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey, saw the most severe congestion, as drivers would go through New Jersey and use the Bayonne Bridge to pay a cheaper toll to enter Staten Island. Fatal accidents involving pedestrians in Lower Manhattan also increased greatly as a result.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In 1987, the MTA supported removing the one-way toll because it reduced MTA revenues by $7million a year. At that point, Cuomo proposed reinstating an eastbound toll for trucks. In 1990, it was noted that about 455,000 more eastbound vehicles per year were using the bridge's eastbound lanes compared with before the toll reconfiguration, but that this was heavily outweighed by the 1.5million fewer westbound vehicles per year. Residents of Manhattan and Brooklyn wanted the tolls changed so that either eastbound vehicles only, or both directions, would be tolled.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In 2019, the United States House of Representatives voted in favor of a federal appropriations bill, which would repeal the bridge's one-way-toll mandate and allow half of the then-current toll to be applied to both directions. At the time, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was the only American bridge with a federal mandate controlling its toll collections. President Donald Trump signed the bill in December 2019, but the MTA had yet to determine at that time when it would enact two-way tolls. After the mandate was repealed, the MTA had to seek approval for split tolls from its board, and install tolling gantries to support split tolls. On December 1, 2020, two-way tolls were reinstated.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: E-ZPass was introduced at the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in late 1995. Its introduction helped to reduce traffic congestion at the tollbooths; in March 1997, it was found that drivers with E-ZPass were able to pass through the westbound tollbooths within 30 seconds, compared to 15 minutes for drivers paying with tokens or cash. In February 1998, the MTA discontinued the sale of toll tokens on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, except to Staten Island residents purchasing them in bulk.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Despite not collecting tolls in the eastbound direction since 1986, the MTA did not do anything with the unused booths for a quarter-century. In 2010, eight of the eleven Brooklyn-bound toll booths were removed as part of the first phase of a project to improve traffic flow at the toll plaza. Two years later, the last of the eastbound tollbooths was removed. Until 2020, tolls were still collected in the Staten Island-bound direction only, and congestion within Lower Manhattan persisted due to the bridge's one-way westbound toll.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Open-road cashless tolling began on July 8, 2017. The westbound tollbooths were also dismantled, and drivers were no longer able to pay cash at the bridge. Instead, cameras and E-ZPass readers are mounted on new overhead gantries manufactured by TransCore near where the booths were located. A vehicle without E-ZPass has a picture taken of its license plate and a bill for the toll is mailed to its owner. For E-ZPass users, sensors detect their transponders wirelessly.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In 2015, an average of 202,523 vehicles used the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge daily in both directions. , the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge carries more traffic than the Outerbridge Crossing, the Bayonne Bridge, and the Goethals Bridge. These three bridges, which connect Staten Island with New Jersey, were used by a combined 168,984 vehicles in both directions.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: In 2011, advocacy group Transportation for America rated the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge as New York's most dangerous, because of the combination of deterioration and the number of people who cross it per day. The MTA responded that the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which was both the newest large bridge and the longest bridge in the state, was structurally sound, and that the bridge had passed its most recent inspection. The MTA attributed Transportation for America's results to a "misinterpretation of inspection records".


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Signs at both ends of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge forbid photography and videotaping while on the bridge. These signs were installed after the September 11, 2001, attacks, when the MTA started confiscating film from individuals who were caught filming MTA crossings. However, the ban had been in place long before the attacks in order to prevent people from taking close-up pictures of the bridge.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Three local bus routes operated by MTA Regional Bus Operations use the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge: the S53 local route, the S79 Select Bus Service route, and the S93 limited-stop route. The bridge also carries 20 express bus routes that connect Staten Island with Manhattan and are also operated by New York City Transit. They are the SIM1, SIM1C, SIM2, SIM3, SIM3C, SIM4, SIM4C, SIM4X, SIM5, SIM6, SIM7, SIM9, SIM10, SIM15, SIM31, SIM32, SIM33, SIM33C, SIM34, and SIM35.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: As part of a proposed expansion of the New York City Subway, a subway line on the bridge was considered early in the planning process, but Moses rejected the plan, ostensibly over cost concerns. Other bridges proposed and built by Moses, including the Triborough Bridge, Henry Hudson Bridge, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, and Throgs Neck Bridge, also lack provisions for subway tracks. According to biographer Robert Caro, Moses purposely excluded any provisions for mass transit on his bridges to promote private transportation.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was not built with a pedestrian walkway. At the time, it was seen as too expensive, and planners additionally explained the lack of a walkway as a benefit that would help prevent suicide jumps. Non-motorized transportation occurs only if the bridge is closed to regular traffic, such as during the New York City Marathon and the Five Boro Bike Tour. In 1976, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was designated as the starting point of the New York City Marathon. The 1976 marathon was the first year in the marathon's six-year history that its course went outside Manhattan. Since then, the marathon has started at the bridge's Staten Island end every year.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The lack of a walkway did not completely prevent suicides, since by 1975, four people have died after jumping off the bridge. The number of suicides has increased over time, despite efforts at deterrence. A sign that says "Life Is Worth Living" is located on the Staten Island approach. In 2008, the MTA also installed six suicide hotlines on the bridge. In December 2019, the MTA began installing a prototype suicide barrier after a series of fatal jumps from the bridge. A permanent suicide barrier was installed from 2021 to 2022.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: There have been calls for a walkway or bike lane on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge since its opening, when several people protested over the lack of bike lanes at the bridge's opening ceremony. In 1977, as a temporary solution, the city modified three buses to fit 12 bikes and 20 passengers each, then operated these buses on a new "S7 Bridge" route. In 1993, the New York City Department of City Planning called for a footpath across the bridge as part of their Greenway Plan for New York City. The next year, the city sought a $100,000 federal grant to fund a feasibility study into a Verrazzano Bridge pedestrian and bike path. In 1997, the DCP released its study, which found that two footpaths running between the suspender ropes along the upper level, separated for pedestrian and cyclist use, would cost a minimum of $26.5million. The MTA at the time expressed concern about the "safety and liability inherent in any strategy that introduces pedestrian and bicycle access" to the bridge.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: Local residents on both sides of the bridge started advocating for the construction of a walkway or bikeway on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 2002. Dave Lutz, the director of the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition nonprofit, stated that after the September 11 attacks, Staten Islanders walked home along the bridge's roadway. Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised to look into the possibility in October 2003.


title: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

text: The Harbor Ring Committee was formed in 2011 to advocate for the completion of the Harbor Ring route, which would create a around New York Harbor, including a footpath across the Verrazzano. In spring 2013 the committee began an online petition that generated more than 2,500 signatures, as well as an organizational sign-on letter with the support of 16 regional and local advocacy and planning organizations. That year, the MTA announced that it would include conduct a three-year feasibility study for installing a pathway on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The MTA considered plans for a bike lane in 2015, during the reconstruction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The MTA estimated that a dedicated multiple-use pathway would cost $400 million due to the need for a minimum width to accommodate a fire engine and construction of entrance and exit ramps. The plan was ultimately rejected in March 2019 over safety concerns.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Jay Gatsby (originally named James Gatz) is the titular fictional character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel "The Great Gatsby". The character is an enigmatic "nouveau riche" millionaire who lives in a luxurious mansion on Long Island where he often hosts extravagant parties and who allegedly gained his vast fortune by illicit bootlegging during prohibition in the United States. Fitzgerald based many details about the fictional character on Max Gerlach, a mysterious neighbor and World War I veteran whom the author met while living in New York City during the raucous Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Gerlach threw lavish parties, never wore the same shirt twice, used the phrase "old sport", claimed to be educated at Oxford University, and fostered myths about himself, including that he was a relation of the German Kaiser.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: The character of Jay Gatsby has been analyzed by scholars for many decades and has given rise to a number of critical interpretations. Scholars have posited that Gatsby functions as a cipher because of his obscure origins, his unclear religio-ethnic identity and his indeterminate class status. Accordingly, Gatsby's socio-economic ascent is deemed a threat by other characters in the novel not only due to his status as "nouveau riche", but because he is perceived as a societal outsider. The character's biographical details indicate his family are recent immigrants which precludes Gatsby from the status of an Old Stock American. As the embodiment of "latest America", Gatsby's rise triggers status anxieties typical of the 1920s era, involving xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Nearly a century after the novel's publication in April 1925, Gatsby has become a cultural touchstone in 20th century America and is often evoked in popular media in the context of the American dream—the belief that every individual, regardless of their origins, may seek and achieve their desired goals, "be they political, monetary, or social. It is the literary expression of the concept of America: The land of opportunity". Gatsby has been described by literary scholars as a false prophet of the American dream as pursuing the dream often results in dissatisfaction for those who chase it, owing to its unattainability.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: The character has appeared in various media related to the novel, including stage plays, radio shows, video games, and feature films. Canadian-American actor James Rennie originated the role of Gatsby on the stage when he headlined the 1926 Broadway adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel at the Ambassador Theatre in New York City. He repeated the role for 112 performances. That same year, screen actor Warner Baxter played the role in the lost 1926 silent film adaptation. During the subsequent decades, the role has been played by many actors including Alan Ladd, Kirk Douglas, Robert Ryan, Robert Redford, Leonardo DiCaprio, and others.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Born circa 1890 to impoverished Lutheran farmers in rural North Dakota, James Gatz was a poor Midwesterner who briefly attended St. Olaf College, a small Lutheran institution in southern Minnesota. He dropped out after two weeks as he disliked supporting himself by working as a lowly janitor.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: In 1907, a 17-year-old Gatz traveled to Lake Superior, where he met copper tycoon Dan Cody whose yacht "Tuolomee" was anchored in Little Girl Bay. Introducing himself as Jay Gatsby, the ragged young man saved Cody's yacht from destruction by warning him of weather hazards. In gratitude, Cody invited him to join his yachting trip. Now known as Gatsby, he served as Cody's protégé over the next five years and voyaged around the world. When Cody died in 1912, he left Gatsby $25,000 in his will (), but Cody's mistress Ella Kaye cheated Gatsby out of the inheritance.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: In 1917, after the United States' entrance into World War I, Gatsby enlisted as a doughboy in the American Expeditionary Forces. During infantry training at Camp Taylor near Louisville, Kentucky, 27-year-old Gatsby met and fell deeply in love with 18-year-old debutante Daisy Fay. Dispatched to Europe, Gatsby attained the rank of Major in the U.S. 16th Infantry Regiment and garnered decorations for extraordinary valor during the Meuse–Argonne offensive in 1918.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: After the Allied Powers signed an armistice with Imperial Germany, Gatsby resided in the United Kingdom in 1919 where he briefly attended Trinity College, Oxford. While there, he received a letter from Daisy, informing him that she had married Thomas "Tom" Buchanan, a wealthy Chicago businessman. Gatsby hurriedly departed the United Kingdom and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to Louisville, but Daisy had already departed the city on her honeymoon. Undaunted by Daisy's marriage to Tom, Gatsby decided to become a man of wealth and influence in order to win Daisy's affections.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: With dreams of amassing immense wealth, a penniless Gatsby settled in New York City as it underwent the birth pangs of the Jazz Age. It is speculated—but never confirmed—that Gatsby took advantage of the newly enacted National Prohibition Act by making a fortune via bootlegging and built connections with organized crime figures such as Meyer Wolfsheim, a Jewish gambler who purportedly fixed the World Series in 1919.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: In 1922, Gatsby purchased an estate on Long Island in the "nouveau riche" area of West Egg, a town on the opposite side of Manhasset Bay from "old money" East Egg, where Daisy, Tom, and their three-year-old daughter Pammy lived. At his mansion, Gatsby hosted elaborate soirées with hot jazz music in an attempt to attract Daisy as a guest. With the help of Daisy's cousin and bond salesman Nick Carraway, Gatsby succeeded in seducing her.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Soon after, Gatsby accompanied Daisy and her husband to Midtown Manhattan in New York City in the company of Carraway and Daisy's friend Jordan Baker. Tom borrowed Gatsby's yellow Rolls-Royce to drive into the city. He detoured to a filling station in the "valley of ashes", a sprawling refuse dump on Long Island. The impoverished proprieter, George Wilson, voiced his concern that his wife Myrtle was having an affair with another man—unaware that Tom was the individual in question.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: At a hotel suite in the twenty-story Plaza Hotel, Tom confronted Gatsby over his ongoing affair with his wife in the presence of Daisy, Carraway, and Baker. Gatsby urged Daisy to disavow her love for Tom and to declare that she had only married Tom for his money. Daisy asserted that she loved both Tom and Gatsby. Leaving the hotel, Daisy departed with Gatsby in his yellow Rolls-Royce while Tom departed in his car with Baker and Carraway.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: While driving Gatsby's car on the return trip to East Egg, Daisy struck and killed—either intentionally or unintentionally—her husband's mistress Myrtle standing in the highway. At Daisy's house in East Egg, Gatsby assured Daisy he would take the blame if they were caught. The next day, Tom informed George that it was Gatsby's car that killed Myrtle. Visiting Gatsby's mansion, George killed Gatsby with a revolver while he was relaxing in his swimming pool and then committed suicide by shooting himself with the revolver.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Despite the many flappers and sheiks who frequented Gatsby's lavish parties on a weekly basis, only one reveler referred to as "Owl-Eyes" attended Gatsby's funeral. Also present at the funeral were bond salesman Nick Carraway and Gatsby's father Henry C. Gatz, who stated his pride in his son's achievement as a self-made millionaire.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: After the publication and commercial success of his debut novel "This Side of Paradise" in 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda Sayre relocated to a wealthy enclave on Long Island near New York City. Despite enjoying the exclusive Long Island milieu, Fitzgerald disapproved of the extravagant parties, and the wealthy persons he encountered often disappointed him. While striving to emulate the rich, he found their privileged lifestyle to be morally disquieting, and he felt repulsed by their careless indifference to less wealthy persons. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald admired the rich, but he nonetheless harbored a deep resentment towards them. This recurrent theme is ascribable to Fitzgerald's life experiences in which he was "a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton." He "sensed a corruption in the rich and mistrusted their might." Consequently, he became a vocal critic of America's leisure class and his works satirized their lives.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: While living in a small cottage on Long Island in 1922, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's enigmatic neighbor was Max Gerlach. Purportedly born in America to a German immigrant family, Gerlach had been an officer in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I, and he later became a gentleman bootlegger who lived like a millionaire in New York. Flaunting his new wealth, Gerlach threw lavish parties, never wore the same shirt twice, used the phrase "old sport", claimed to be educated at Oxford University, and fostered myths about himself, including that he was a relation of the German Kaiser. These details about Gerlach inspired Fitzgerald in his creation of Jay Gatsby. With the end of prohibition and the onset of the Great Depression, Gerlach lost his immense wealth. Living in reduced circumstances, he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head in 1939. Blinded after his suicide attempt, he lived as a helpless invalid for many years before dying on October 18, 1958, at Bellevue Hospital, New York City. He was buried in a pine casket at Long Island National Cemetery.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Mirroring Gerlach's background, Fitzgerald's fictional creation of James Gatz has a Germanic surname, and the character's father adheres to Lutheranism. These biographical details indicate Gatsby's family are recent German immigrants. Such origins preclude them from the status of Old Stock Americans. Consequently, scholars have posited that Gatsby's socio-economic ascent is deemed a threat not only due to his status as "nouveau riche", but because he is perceived as an ethnic and societal outsider. Tom Buchanan's hostility towards Gatsby, who is the embodiment of "latest America", has been interpreted as partly embodying status anxieties typical of the 1920s era, involving anti-immigrant sentiment. Accordingly, Gatsby—whom Tom belittles as "Mr. Nobody from Nowhere"—functions as a cipher because of his obscure origins, his unclear religio-ethnic identity and his indeterminate class status.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Due to Gatsby's "nouveau riche" background and indeterminate class status, Fitzgerald viewed the character to be a contemporary Trimalchio, the crude upstart in Petronius's "Satyricon", and even refers to Gatsby as Trimalchio once in the novel. Unlike Gatsby's spectacular parties, Trimalchio participated in the orgies he hosted, although the characters are otherwise similar. Intent on emphasizing the connection to Trimalchio, Fitzgerald entitled an earlier draft of the novel as "Trimalchio in West Egg". Fitzgerald's editor, Maxwell Perkins, convinced the author to abandon his original title of "Trimalchio in West Egg" in favor of "The Great Gatsby".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Following "The Great Gatsby"s publication in April 1925, Fitzgerald was dismayed that many literary critics misunderstood the novel, and he resented the fact that they failed to perceive the many parallels between the author's own life and his fictional character of Jay Gatsby; in particular, that both created a mythical version of themselves and attempted to live up to this legend.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: The character of Jay Gatsby has become a cultural touchstone in 20th century America. Political commentator Chris Matthews views the character as personifying the eternal American striver, albeit one is keenly aware that his "nouveau riche" status is a detriment: "Gatsby needed more than money: he needed to be someone who had "always" had it... this blind faith that he can retrofit his very existence to Daisy's specifications is the heart and soul of "The Great Gatsby". It's the classic story of the fresh start, the second chance". However, in contrast to Gatsby as "the eternal American striver", folklorist Richard Dorson sees Gatsby as a radically different American archetype who rejects the traditional approach to earning wealth via hard work in favor of quick riches via bootlegging. In Dorson's view, Gatsby "has explicitly rejected the Protestant ethic in favor of a much more extravagant form of ambition".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: The character is frequently evoked as an indicator of social mobility; in particular, the likelihood of the average American amassing wealth and achieving the American dream. In 1970, scholar Roger L. Pearson traced the literary origins of this dream to Colonial America. The dream is the belief that every individual, regardless of their origins, may seek and achieve their desired goals, "be they political, monetary, or social. It is the literary expression of the concept of America: The land of opportunity". Pearson suggests Gatsby serves as a false prophet of the American dream, and pursuing the dream only results in dissatisfaction for those who chase it, owing to its unattainability. In this context, the green light emanating across the Long Island Sound from Gatsby's house is interpreted as a symbol of Gatsby's unrealizable goal to win Daisy and, consequently, to achieve the American dream. Reporting in 2009 on the economic effects of the Great Recession on Long Island—the fictional setting of Gatsby's mansion—"The Wall Street Journal" quoted a struggling hotelier as saying "Jay Gatsby is dead".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: The term "Gatsby" is also often used in the United States to refer to real-life figures who have reinvented themselves; in particular, wealthy individuals whose rise to prominence involved an element of deception or self-mythologizing. In a 1986 exposé on disgraced journalist R. Foster Winans who engaged in insider trading with stockbroker Peter Brant, the "Seattle Post Intelligencer" described Brant as "Winan's Gatsby". Brant had changed his name from Bornstein and said he was "a man who turned his back on his heritage and his family because he felt that being recognized as Jewish would be a detriment to his career".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: In more recent years, Gatsby's voracious pursuit of wealth has been referenced by scholars as exemplifying the perils of environmental destruction in pursuit of self-interest. According to scholars, Gatsby's quest for greater status manifests as self-centered, anthropocentric resource acquisition. Inspired by the predatory mining practices of his fictional mentor Dan Cody, Gatsby participates in extensive deforestation amid World War I and then undertakes bootlegging activities reliant upon exploiting South American agriculture. Gatsby conveniently ignores the wasteful devastation of the valley of ashes to pursue a consumerist lifestyle and exacerbates the wealth gap that became increasingly salient in 1920s America. For these reasons, scholars argue that—while Gatsby's socioeconomic ascent and self-transformation depend upon these very factors—each one is nonetheless partially responsible for the ongoing ecological crisis.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Both the character of Jay Gatsby and Fitzgerald's novel have been linked to composer George Gershwin's 1924 song "Rhapsody in Blue". As early as 1927, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald opined that "Rhapsody in Blue" idealized the youthful zeitgeist of the Jazz Age. In subsequent decades, both the latter era and Fitzgerald's literary works were often linked by critics and scholars with Gershwin's composition. In 1941, historian Peter Quennell opined that Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" embodied "the sadness and the remote jauntiness of a Gershwin tune".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Accordingly, "Rhapsody in Blue" was used as a dramatic leitmotif for the character of Jay Gatsby in the 2013 film "The Great Gatsby", the fourth cinematic adaptation of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel. Various writers such as the American playwright and critic Terry Teachout have likened Gershwin himself to the character of Gatsby due to his attempt to transcend his lower-class background, his abrupt meteoric success, and his early death while in his thirties.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: The first individual to portray the role of Jay Gatsby was 37-year-old James Rennie, a stage actor who headlined the 1926 Broadway adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel at the Ambassador Theatre in New York City. As "a handsome Canadian with a good voice", Rennie's portrayal of Gatsby was met with rave reviews from theater critics. He repeated the role for 112 performances and then paused when he had to voyage to England due to an ailing family member. After returning from England, he continued to appear as Gatsby when the stage play embarked upon a successful nation-wide tour. As Fitzgerald was vacationing in Europe at the time, he never saw the 1926 Broadway play, but his agent Harold Ober sent him telegrams which quoted the many positive reviews of the production.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: A number of actors later portrayed Jay Gatsby in cinematic adaptations of Fitzgerald's novel. Warner Baxter played the role in the lost 1926 silent film. Although the film received mixed reviews, Warner Baxter's portrayal of Gatsby was praised by several critics, although other critics found his acting to be overshadowed by Lois Wilson as Daisy. Purportedly, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda Sayre loathed the 1926 film adaptation of his novel and stormed out midway through a viewing of the film at a cinema. "We saw "The Great Gatsby" at the movies," Zelda wrote to an acquaintance in 1926, "it's rotten and awful and terrible and we left".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Nearly a decade after Fitzgerald's death by a heart attack in 1940, Gatsby was portrayed by Oklahoma actor Alan Ladd in the 1949 film adaptation. Ladd's Gatsby was criticized by Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" who felt that Ladd was overly solemn in the title role and gave the impression of "a patient and saturnine fellow who is plagued by a desperate love". The film's producer Richard Maibaum claimed that he cast Ladd as Gatsby based on the actor's rags-to-riches similarity to the character:


title: Jay Gatsby

text: In 1974, Robert Redford portrayed Gatsby in a film adaptation that year. Film critic Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" believed that Redford was "too substantial, too assured, even too handsome" as Gatsby and would have been better suited in the role of antagonist Tom Buchanan. Likewise, film critic Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" criticized Redford's interpretation of Gatsby as merely a "shallow pretty boy". Siskel declared there was little resemblance between Redford's suave portrayal and the ambitious parvenu in the novel.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: In more recent decades, Leonardo DiCaprio played the role in director Baz Luhrmann's 2013 film adaptation. In a 2011 interview with "Time" magazine prior to the film's production, DiCaprio explained he was attracted to the role of Gatsby due to the idea of portraying "a man who came from absolutely nothing, who created himself solely from his own imagination. Gatsby's one of those iconic characters because he can be interpreted in so many ways: a hopeless romantic, a completely obsessed wacko or a dangerous gangster intent on clinging to wealth".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: The character of Jay Gatsby has appeared many times in television adaptations. The first was in May 1955 as an NBC episode for "Robert Montgomery Presents" starring Robert Montgomery as Gatsby. In May 1958, CBS filmed the novel as an episode of "Playhouse 90", also titled "The Great Gatsby," which starred 50-year-old Robert Ryan as the 32-year-old Jay Gatsby.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Toby Stephens later portrayed the character in a 2000 television film adaptation. In a 2001 review of the television film, "The New York Times" criticized Stephens' performance as "so rough around the edges, so patently an up-from-the-street poseur that no one could fall for his stories for a second" and his "blunt performance turns Gatsby's entrancing smile into a suspicious smirk".


title: Jay Gatsby

text: In "The Simpsons" episode "The Great Phatsby", Mr. Burns assumes Jay Gatsby's role, with the storyline spoofing the 2013 film adaptation. In the "Family Guy" episode "High School English", Brian Griffin is portrayed as Gatsby.


title: Jay Gatsby

text: Kirk Douglas starred as Gatsby in an adaptation broadcast on CBS "Family Hour of Stars" on January 1, 1950, and Andrew Scott played Gatsby in the 2012 two-part BBC Radio 4 "Classic Serial" production.


title: I'm Not There

text: I'm Not There is a 2007 musical drama film directed by Todd Haynes, and co-written by Haynes and Oren Moverman. It is an unconventional biographical film inspired by the life and music of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's public personas: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger (his final film to be released during his lifetime), and Ben Whishaw. A caption at the start of the film declares it to be "inspired by the music and the many lives of Bob Dylan"; this is the only mention of Dylan in the film apart from song credits, and his only appearance in it is concert footage from 1966 shown during the film's final moments.


title: I'm Not There

text: The film tells its story using non-traditional narrative techniques, intercutting the storylines of seven different Dylan-inspired characters. The title of the film is taken from the 1967 Dylan "Basement Tape" recording of "I'm Not There", a song that had not been officially released until it appeared on the film's soundtrack album. The film received a generally favorable response for its acting, directing, and musical score, and appeared on several top ten films lists for 2007, topping the lists for "The Village Voice", "Entertainment Weekly", "Salon", and "The Boston Globe". Particular praise went to Cate Blanchett for her performance, culminating in a Volpi Cup for Best Actress from the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination.


title: I'm Not There

text: "I'm Not There" uses a nonlinear narrative, shifting between six characters in separate storylines "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan". Each character represents a different facet of Dylan's public persona: poet (Arthur Rimbaud), prophet (Jack Rollins/Father John), outlaw (Billy McCarty), fake (Woody Guthrie), "rock and roll martyr" (Jude Quinn), and "star of electricity" (Robbie Clark).


title: I'm Not There

text: Production notes published by distributor The Weinstein Company explain that the film "dramatizes the life and music of Bob Dylan as a series of shifting personae, each performed by a different actor—poet, prophet, outlaw, fake, star of electricity, rock and roll martyr, born-again Christian—seven identities braided together, seven organs pumping through one life story."


title: I'm Not There

text: 19-year-old Arthur Rimbaud is questioned by interrogators. His cryptic responses are interspersed throughout the film, including remarks on fatalism, the nature of poets, "seven simple rules for life in hiding," and chaos.


title: I'm Not There

text: In 1959, an 11-year-old African American boy calling himself Woody Guthrie is freighthopping through the Midwestern United States. Carrying a guitar in a case bearing the slogan "this machine kills fascists", he plays blues music and sings about topics such as trade unionism. One African American woman advises him to sing about the issues of his own time instead. Woody is attacked by hobos and nearly drowns, but is rescued by a white couple who take him in. They are impressed with his musical talents, but Woody runs off when they receive a telephone call from a juvenile corrections center in Minnesota telling them he is an escaped fugitive. Upon learning that the real Woody Guthrie is deathly ill, Dylan travels to New Jersey to visit Guthrie in the hospital.


title: I'm Not There

text: The career of folk musician Jack Rollins is framed as a documentary film, told by interviewees including folk singer Alice Fabian. Jack becomes a star of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s, praised by fans for his protest songs. He signs to Columbia Records, but in 1963, just as the Vietnam War is escalating, he stops singing protest songs and turns away from folk music, believing that neither affects real social or political change. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jack gets drunk at a ceremony where he is receiving an award from a civil rights organization. Remarking in his acceptance speech that he saw something of himself in Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, he is booed and derided by the audience. He goes into hiding, and in 1974 enters a bible study course in Stockton, California, and emerges a born again Christian, denouncing his past and becoming an ordained minister performing gospel music under the name "Father John".


title: I'm Not There

text: Robbie Clark is a 22-year-old actor who plays Jack Rollins in the 1965 biographical film "Grain of Sand". During filming in Greenwich Village in January 1964, he falls in love with French artist Claire, and they soon marry. "Grain of Sand" is a hit and Robbie becomes a star, but their relationship is strained and Claire observes Robbie flirting with other women. She is particularly offended when, during an argument in 1968 over whether the evils of the world can be changed, he opines that women can never be poets. Eventually Robbie moves out of their house, then goes to London for four months to film a thriller and has an affair with his female co-star. Richard Nixon's January 1973 announcement of the Paris Peace Accords inspires Claire to ask for a divorce. She gains custody of their two daughters, but allows Robbie to take them on a boating trip.


title: I'm Not There

text: Jude Quinn is a popular former folk singer whose performance with a full band and electric guitars at a New England jazz and folk festival outrages his fans, who accuse him of selling out. Travelling to London, Jude is asked by journalist Keenan Jones if he has become disillusioned or thinks folk music has failed to achieve its goals of sociopolitical change. Jude is attacked by a hotel employee, hangs out with the Beatles, encounters his former lover Coco Rivington, and meets poet Allen Ginsberg, who suggests that Jude "sold out to God." Interviewing Jude, Keenan notes that Jude's songs are being used as recruitment tools by the Black Panther Party and opines that Jude refuses to feel deeply about anything while simultaneously being very self-conscious; Jude is offended and walks out of the interview. At a concert performing "Ballad of a Thin Man", Jude is booed and called a "Judas" by the audience. Keenan reveals on television that, despite his claims of a rough-and-tumble vagabond past, Jude is actually Aaron Jacob Edelstein, the suburban, middle-class, educated son of a Brookline, Massachusetts department store owner. Faced with a long string of upcoming European tour dates, Jude spirals into drug use and is killed in a motorcycle accident.


title: I'm Not There

text: Outlaw Billy McCarty, believed to have been killed by Pat Garrett, lives in hiding in rural Riddle, Missouri. Learning that Commissioner Garrett plans to demolish the town to build a highway, which has caused several townspeople to commit suicide, Billy confronts Garrett. Garrett recognizes Billy as the outlaw Billy the Kid and has him thrown in jail. He is broken out by his friend Homer and hops into a boxcar on a passing train, where he finds Woody's guitar. As he rides away, he remarks on the nature of freedom and identity.


title: I'm Not There

text: Todd Haynes and his producer, Christine Vachon, approached Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, to obtain permission to use Dylan's music and to fictionalize elements of Dylan's life. Rosen suggested that Haynes should send a one-page synopsis of his film for submission to Dylan. Rosen advised Haynes not to use the word "genius" or "voice of a generation". The page Haynes submitted began with a quote from Arthur Rimbaud: "I is someone else", and then continued:


title: I'm Not There

text: Dylan gave Haynes permission to proceed with his project. Haynes developed his screenplay with writer Oren Moverman. In the course of writing, Haynes has acknowledged that he became uncertain whether he could successfully carry off a film which deliberately confused biography with fantasy in such an extreme way. According to the account of the film that Robert Sullivan published in the "New York Times": "Haynes called Jeff Rosen, Dylan's right hand, who was watching the deal-making but staying out of the scriptwriting. Rosen, he said, told him not to worry, that it was just his own crazy version of what Dylan is."


title: I'm Not There

text: In a comment on why six actors were employed to portray different facets of Dylan's personality, Haynes wrote:


title: I'm Not There

text: A further Dylan-based character named Charlie, based on Charlie Chaplin, was dropped before filming began. Haynes described him as "a little tramp, coming to Greenwich Village and performing feats of magic and being an arbiter of peace between the beats and the folkies."


title: I'm Not There

text: The film within a film, "Grain of Sand", is not only important for the plot of "I'm Not There" but also for the film's connection to Bob Dylan's life. Larry Gross suggests that "Grain of Sand" actor Robbie may be the film's most accurate portrayal of Dylan despite being "a fictional actor playing a fictional alternative version of a real person" because of his tumultuous relationship with Claire. Gross also notes parallels between Robbie and Claire's ultimately failed marriage and Dylan's relationship with Suze Rotolo, claiming that Claire's character seems to be a portrayal of Rotolo, especially considering the shot in "I'm Not There" that mimicks the photo of Rotolo and Dylan on the cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan".


title: I'm Not There

text: Principal photography took place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Music festival scenes were filmed in Chambly, Quebec in the summer of 2006.


title: I'm Not There

text: The film features numerous songs by Dylan, performed by Dylan and also recordings by other artists. The songs feature as both foreground—performed by artists on camera (e.g. "Goin' to Acapulco", "Pressing On")—and background accompaniment to the action. A notable non-Dylan song in the movie is "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" by The Monkees, which plays in the background of a party scene set in London.


title: I'm Not There

text: In January 2007, The Weinstein Company acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. "I'm Not There" had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2007. The film went onto screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, London Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. The film opened in limited release in the United States on November 21, 2007. It was then released in Germany on February 28, 2008, by Tobis Film.


title: I'm Not There

text: "I'm Not There" was released on DVD as a 2-disc special edition on May 6, 2008. The DVD special features include audio commentary from Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, a music video, audition tapes for certain cast members, trailers, and a Bob Dylan filmography and discography.


title: I'm Not There

text: "I'm Not There" received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 77% approval rating based on 162 reviews, with an average rating of 7.06 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states: ""I'm Not There"s unique editing, visuals, and multiple talented actors portraying Bob Dylan make for a deliciously unconventional experience. Each segment brings a new and fresh take on Dylan's life." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.


title: I'm Not There

text: Writing in "The Chronicle of Higher Education", Anthony DeCurtis wrote that casting six different actors, including a woman and an African-American child, to play Dylan was "a preposterous idea, the sort of self-consciously 'audacious'—or reassuringly multi-culti—gambit that, for instance, doomed the Broadway musical based on the life and music of John Lennon. Yet in "I'm Not There," the strategy works brilliantly." He especially praised Blanchett:


title: I'm Not There

text: Several other critics also praised Blanchett's performance as the mid-1960s Dylan. "Newsweek" magazine described Blanchett as "so convincing and intense that you shrink back in your seat when she fixes you with her gaze." The "Charlotte Observer" called Blanchett "miraculously close to the 1966 Dylan."