Seems many people are missing the BR (Mist) note when evaluating that the reported 500' overcast is "not that bad".
As I noted up-thread, I drove over the Verrazano Bridge both ways that day, and both ways I was driving in cloud, unable to easily read highway exit signs on the bridge. The peak of the bridge road deck is only 230' MSL. Sure, there's some local weather that happens in that part of the harbor but it's fair to say the weather was terrible.