The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

(source: silive.com)

Once the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was paid for, motorists would be free from paying a toll to cross it.

So goes the urban legend, repeated for nearly half a century and believed by countless Islanders who fervently evoke it at toll-hike hearings, in letters to the Advance, or in casual conversation when the E-ZPass bill arrives.

But like the one that claims feeding Alka-Seltzer to a pigeon will cause the bird to explode, consider this myth debunked. 

According to Joyce Mulvaney, a spokeswoman for MTA Bridges & Tunnels, which operates the bridge, “We have searched our archives and can find no documentation for the statement and, given the structure of our bonds, as backed by toll revenue, it doesn’t make sense that anyone would make such a statement — now or then.”