Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge anchorage on the Staten Island side contains a facility for heating cinders that are used to de-ice the bridge deck during winter. At the time of opening, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world; its 4,260-foot center span, between the two suspension towers, was longer than the Golden Gate Bridge's center span. Despite being only slightly longer than the Golden Gate Bridge, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge could carry a 75% greater load than the former could. In 1981, the Verrazzano Bridge was surpassed by the Humber Bridge in England, which has a center span of , as
Suspension bridge Clark and it is a larger scale version of Marlow bridge. An interesting variation is Thornewill and Warham's Ferry Bridge in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire (1889), where the chains are not attached to abutments as is usual, but instead are attached to the main girders, which are thus in compression. Here, the chains are made from flat wrought iron plates, eight inches (203 mm) wide by an inch and a half (38 mm) thick, rivetted together. The first wire-cable suspension bridge was the Spider Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill (1816), a modest and temporary footbridge built following the collapse of James Finley's