FORT WADSWORTH — It's a 4,260 foot typo.
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge— the longest in the USA and which ranks 11th in the world — has a massive mistake, according to a new campaign.
The name of the bridge that links Brooklyn to Staten Island is spelled wrong.
It was named to honor Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano — whose surname has two "Z"s.
But the bridge only has one.
And Robert Nash, of Dyker Heights, has started a petition to put the error right, as first reported by the Brooklyn Paper.
"It’s been 52 years we’ve been spelling it wrong," Nash told the Brooklyn Paper.
"If we’re really going to honor him — and his name has two 'Z's — then it's time."
o far, Nash has secured 88 signatures calling for the change.
"Italian-Americans have a right to be present in the history of the United States," Nash wrote on the petition.
"All too often, people push Italians and Italian-Americans to the side! Sign this petition; let's unite as proud Italian-Americans!"
An MTA spokesman told DNAinfo New York Tuesday that it has no plans to change the name of the bridge because it would be too costly to get new signs.
The most recent bridge name change in New York City — the Triborough Bridge which became the R.F.K. Bridge in 2008 — set the state back $4 million for new the road signs, theNew York Times reported.
The Brooklyn to Staten Island connection was named after explorer Verrazzano who discovered the New York Harbor, which the bridge crosses, in 1542, according toBiography.
Urban planner Robert Moses pushed back against naming the bridge after the explorer — because of his hard-to-pronounce name — but eventually lost out to pressure from the Italian Historical Society and then Gov. Nelson Rockerfeller, the Brooklyn Paperreported.
When the bridge opened in 1964, its name had the typographical error and it was never corrected, the MTA said.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Scientifically proven features men find attractive in women