ALBANY — The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge: A colossal expanse linking Brooklyn and Staten Island, once the longest suspension bridge in the world and a proud symbol of New York City’s history and urban geography.

Language of origin: Italian. Part of speech: noun.

Spelling: Wrong.

The iconic bridge, with one Z, was christened in 1960 in honor of the 16th-century explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, with two Zs. After the better part of a century of wrangling over the spelling of the name, the state seems poised to finally rectify what is possibly the biggest unintentional slight in the annals of American public architecture.

“It does a justice for the injustice that has been done over the years,” said Senator Martin J. Golden, a Republican who represents parts of Brooklyn and who is the sponsor of a bill, unanimously passed in the Senate, that would add a long-truant Z to the bridge’s name. “Verrazzano was a great discoverer, a great explorer,” Mr. Golden said. To have the name misspelled all these years — “It’s shameful,” he said.

The orthographic debate the bill seeks to settle is older than the bridge itself. Even before construction on the structure began, city and state leaders were squabbling over the spelling, with Gov. W. Averell Harriman stumping for two Zs, and the aides of his successor, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, championing just one. The war pitted zealous One-Zers against Two-Zers, encyclopedists against museum officials, historians against the Italian ambassador. In 1959, at the zenith of the dispute, officials en route to a groundbreaking ceremony for the planned Verrazano-Narrows Bridge found themselves in a boat called the “Verrazzano.”