A New York City bridge is set to finally have the spelling of its name amended after it has been misspelt for more than 50 years.

The Verrazzano-Narrows bridge which connects Brooklyn with Staten Island, opened in the 1960s and at the time was the longest bridge in the world.

The bridge was comprised of 693ft-high towers which weighed a massive 24,500 tonnes was an engineering triumph for its day.

The bridge was named in honour of the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano who was the first explorer from Europe to sail into New York in 1524.

The reason for the spelling error is not exactly known but it is assumed that there was a typo in one of the original construction contracts and the bridge’s name had been spelt wrong ever since. The bridge’s name has been written with one Z instead of two.

The governor of New York Andrew Cuomo has now signed a bill that will finally rectify the spelling error.