People have been crossing the Goethals Bridge between Staten Island and New Jersey for decades, so they definitely noticed when a new guide sign went up and something didn't look quite right.
A green, diagrammatic guide sign that recently went up on the New Jersey-bound lanes of the Staten Island Expressway had a misspelling on it. The white letterings had two letters swapped places and they read "Geothals Bridge." That's not all.
Another sign had a different misspelling, according to Jaclyn Spiegel, who spotted the unfortunate mistake last week on Staten Island at the Victory Boulevard entrance. That one said "Goethlas."
In a statement, the Department of Transportation said it was aware of the misspellings.
"We are aware of the misspelling of the signs and are taking immediate steps to address the issue with the contractor who was responsible for fabrication and installation. The signs will be fixed within the next few days at the contractor’s expense," a department spokesperson said in a statement.
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It's unclear when the misspelling will be corrected. If history's any indication, it could take years for the sign to be fixed. Back in 2018, misspellings on New York City's Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge were finally corrected after more than 50 years.
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The name had been spelled with one 'Z', even though it should have had two to reflect the name of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who discovered New York harbor in 1524.
Goethals Bridge was named after Major General George W. Goethals, the builder of the Panama Canal and the first consulting engineer of the Port Authority, according to the agency.
