NYC Marathon 2026 Road Closures: The Verrazzano Shuts Tonight as the MTA Reroutes Weekend Trains
The 2026 TCS New York City Marathon takes over the streets on Sunday, November 1, and the first closure lands tonight: the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge upper level closes at 11 p.m. Saturday, with the full bridge shut to traffic from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on race day.
Marathon weekend's first hard deadline is tonight. The MTA says the upper level of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge closes to traffic in both directions at 11 p.m. Saturday, October 31, so crews can prepare the roadway, and the whole bridge closes to all non-emergency traffic from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, while the 2026 TCS New York City Marathon runs. On Staten Island, the Bay Street and Lily Pond Avenue exits close at 3 a.m. Sunday and reopen at approximately 4 p.m. Drivers with questions can call the Verrazzano-Narrows Marathon Traffic Hotline at (718) 692-5656.
Inside the city, the Central Park transverse roads at 65th, 79th and 96th streets will be closed for most of Sunday, buses will not be permitted to cross Fifth Avenue during the race, and bus diversions will ripple along the marathon route across all five boroughs. The MTA is telling spectators to take transit: runners heading to the start ride the subway to South Ferry, Whitehall Street or Bowling Green and walk to the Staten Island Ferry, and Metro-North will run additional early-morning inbound trains on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines, arriving at Grand Central between 5:15 and 5:30 a.m.
The marathon lands on top of a planned-work weekend. The MTA's fall schedule has no J or M service between Brooklyn and Manhattan this weekend — part of a run of weekends through November 23 for switch replacement work around Marcy Avenue — with J trains turning at Myrtle Avenue, M trains running in two sections every 20 minutes, and free T432 shuttle buses covering the skipped stations. A trains are also rerouted for the Halloween weekend, with Inwood-bound trains running via the F line between Jay Street-MetroTech and West 4th Street from Friday night through Monday at 5 a.m.
The practical advice from the transit authority is the same on every channel: check mta.info or the MTA app before leaving, expect station stairways near the finish line to be marked entrance-only or exit-only as crowds build, and give every trip across the harbor or the marathon route extra time until the roads reopen Sunday afternoon.