NEW YORK – People have been crossing the Goethals Bridge between Staten Island and New Jersey for decades, so they definitely caught on when a new guide sign appeared and something didn’t look quite right.
A green diagram sign that was recently posted in the New Jersey-bound lanes of the Staten Island Expressway had a misspelling. The white letters had two letters swapped and said “Geothals Bridge.”
Our sister network, NBC New York, has contacted the Department of Transportation about the error, but has not received a response.
It is unclear when the misspelling will be corrected. If history is any indication, it could be years before the sign is fixed. In 2018, misspellings on New York City’s Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge were finally corrected after more than 50 years.
The name had been spelled with a ‘Z’, although it should have had two to reflect the name of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who discovered New York Harbor in 1524.
The Goethals Bridge was named in honor of Major General George W. Goethals, the builder of the Panama Canal and the Port Authority’s first consulting engineer, according to the agency.
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