Arriving very early this day, we all parked our cars in the growing line behind the barricades on an entrance ramp to the toll plaza, …under the overhead sign in the second image below. Finally, down by the booths, and after “Mr. First,” the lights turned green and we were on our way.
The view was spectacular, with Manhattan off to the left; Coney Island, Lower N.Y Bay and The Atlantic Ocean to the right. The car toll was $.50 each way. Today, 2019, tolls are collected westbound only ranging between $19 to $12.24 with E-ZPass!
(More information on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, can be found on Wikipedia, which we support with donations.)
Thanks for viewing, zoom in for a closer look, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂
I never knew you had done this.! Chalk it up on the list of items I either missed or had forgotten about. We need an old fashioned slide show to relive some of these classics.
Looks like you were about fifth in your line…about the 30-40th car across the bridge. In the pre-internet age, how would one find out about something like this? Newspapers?
Thanks for posting
-s
I believe the car to the left with the banner was “Mr. First” who earned that title likely starting with the George Washington Bridge. He was a sort of celebrity. So looking that up may reveal some more info, at least around the NYC metro area. 🙂
Interesting (and nice to see all them old cars).
By the way, the photos don’t zoom.
To clarify: clicking on them gets you a larger version but not much more zoom.
Disperser: These were originally film slides (remember slides?) which I digitalized some years ago. The file sizes are a lot smaller than we’re working with these days, those numbers have grown significantly in the past decade. This apparently minimized the effective zoom capacity. Frankly, I was surprised it was a good as was! And by the way, thanks for the mention of this bridge on your recent cruise – which gave me the idea to look into the deep recesses for these images.
D: – Actually, I find the zooming to be pretty good as I checked it out. So, all I can conclude is …Hmmmmm! ?
You can click on the photo and a larger version opens. But, it opens at the maximum size (on my screen) and you can’t zoom by clicking on it. So, it’s larger, but it doesn’t help with seen fine details.
For instance, you know what the sign on the back of that car said, but I couldn’t read it, nor could I zoom in to read it. Not a big deal; the photos are still nice and I don’t need to read the sign.
Wow, those bridge tolls are pretty steep! Out state-owned bridges that cross the Bay charge $7 and the Golden Gate Bridge fare is $8.35.
Anonymous: I believe these VNB tolls are about the highest in the country, but they are multi-tiered, and there are special discounts for Staten Island residents …as low as $3.40 for inter-boro commuters. Staten Island is, in fact, politically a part of New York City. Thanks for your comment. M 🙂
Great post. I especially enjoyed to see those big American cars. Thank you for this interesting post with those gorgeous photos.
Have a good day!
Excellent series.
Sartenada and Rabirius: Thank You. M 🙂
These pictures are great, did you take these? I really love old pictures so much. My favourite pictures are old New York City pictures. Well any old city picture really. I just find these old pictures fun to look at and think about what happened to all those people in these pictures.
Yes, Rob, althoguh I hate to think of the years that have passed. I was already using a 35mm SLR at that time, hence the better than average quality from that time. You can see THAT camera in this post from when I used it in a 1967 cross country trip:
http://wp.me/p37YEI-T0
M 🙂
What a great walk through some history! Thank you
Wow, that’s a huge difference in prices..could that be the inflation? Impressive pictures from the past! Did you save the old pictures as slides or as printouts?
Indah: Inflation would be the majority of the costs. $.50 one way would be about $6.00 today, so the costs are considerably higher out of pocket for those not in special caosting plans, like EZ-Pass. And the originals were 35 mm slides. Over the years, I digitalized about 18,000 slides, (Using a Nikon SF-210 scanner specific for that purpose.) That’s nice, but considerably more volatile compared to phyically intact slide film or prints. The digital age! Thanks for your comment. M 🙂
Nice blog
Thank You! M 🙂
This is a wonderful collection of vintage photos, MV. And they tell a great story. Love the old cars. I grew up in NJ so the Verrazano is in my childhood memory banks. 🙂