This NYC Bridge Now Has America's Most Expensive Toll

NEW YORK — A New York City bridge now costs more to cross than any other in the nation under MTA toll hikes that took effect Sunday. Drivers using the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge now pay $19 to enter Staten Island from Brooklyn without an E-Z Pass, up from $17.

That price for passenger cars now outranks the $18 fee to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia on weekends from mid-May to mid-September. But that massive crossing is 20 miles long, while the Verrazzano Bridge is only about two and a half miles.

The Verrazzano is among nine MTA bridges and tunnels that saw toll hikes this week under a plan the transit agency's board approved in February.

Drivers using one of the city's five major crossings — the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel or the Queens-Midtown Tunnel — now have to pay $9.50 without an E-Z Pass, up from $8.50.

Crossing the Henry Hudson Bridge connecting The Bronx to Inwood in Manhattan now costs $7, up from $6. And tolls on the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge rose to $4.75 from $4.25.

The Verrazzano Bridge is a vital route into the rest of New York City for Staten Island drivers, who can use it to access the Belt Parkway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Staten Islanders get a break on the hefty toll — Gov. Andrew Cuomo got state funding to freeze the effective rate for the borough's residents at $5.50, according to the Staten Island Advance.

But City Councilman Justin Brannan seethed that frequent bridge-crossers from south Brooklyn have to pay more. Brooklynites with an E-Z Pass who make at least three crossings to Staten Island a month should be able to get the same discount, he said.

"Last time I checked, a bridge has two sides," Brannan, a Bay Ridge Democrat, tweeted on Sunday. "It is RIDICULOUS that the discounts offered to Staten Island residents have NEVER been offered to Brooklyn residents."