Giovanni Da Verrazzano

Giovanni da Verrazzano (sometimes spelled "Verrazano") (1485–1528) was an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of the French crown. He is renowned as the first European since the Norse expeditions to North America around AD 1000 to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland, including New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay in 1524. The bridge over the opening of New York harbor and a naval vessel of the Italian navy, a destroyer of the Navigatori class, are among his numerous eponymous honors.