Crossing the harbor we could see the distant Verrazano being constructed, a gargantuan feat of engineering that even allowed for the curvature of the Earth. The World's Fair opened in Queens foretelling of a science fiction future of men walking on the moon, home computers and pocket phones. It all seemed too far-fetched to be believed. But Staten Island natives grumbled endlessly about how "that goddamned bridge" would destroy the future of their rural borough of free-flowing traffic that my unhappy father called "a one-horse town."