Marathon Sunday Closures Are in Effect in New York City: Verrazzano Shut 7 to 4, First Avenue Until 10:30
Race day is here and the course owns the streets: the Verrazzano-Narrows is closed to all non-emergency traffic from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., First Avenue is shut until 10:30 p.m., and the MTA is telling everyone the same thing — take the train.
The closures the city has been warning about all week are now in effect. The MTA says the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is closed to all non-emergency vehicular traffic from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. today for the TCS New York City Marathon, and its upper level has been closed in both directions since 11 p.m. Saturday for race preparation. The Bay Street and Lily Pond Avenue exits on Staten Island closed at 3 a.m. and are expected to reopen at about 4 p.m. Drivers between Brooklyn and Staten Island need another route entirely — there is no crossing the course's starting bridge today.
In Manhattan the longest closure is the race's loudest mile: First Avenue, from 59th Street to the Willis Avenue Bridge, is shut from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. under the city's closure list. Fifth Avenue closes from 138th to 90th streets from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and around the Central Park finish, Central Park West, Columbus Avenue and Broadway carry closures deep into the evening. The Central Park transverse roads at 65th, 79th and 96th streets are closed for most of the day, and buses are not permitted to cross Fifth Avenue while the race is on, with further diversions all along the route. The city warns that every window can shift at the NYPD's discretion.
Transit is the way around it — and the way to the start. The MTA says runners ride the subway to the Staten Island Ferry, where shuttle buses take them to the start area on Staten Island, and Metro-North is running additional early-morning trains on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines, arriving at Grand Central between 5:15 and 5:30 a.m., so runners can connect downtown. Extra MTA staff are posted near the finish line and other busy viewing points, and some station stairways may be marked entrance-only or exit-only to keep crowds moving.
If you must drive, build the day around the reopenings, not the race: the Verrazzano and its Staten Island exits come back at about 4 p.m., the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway stretch by the bridge follows in the early evening, and First Avenue is the last of the big avenues to return, at 10:30 p.m. Check mta.info or the MTA app before any trip — on marathon Sunday, the map changes faster than the traffic.
