Walk Across a Bridge Icon

The sun was out and the humidity was high on a June Saturday.  The temperature said 85 degrees, but it felt like 105.  What a great day to take a long walk in the city!

After 15 years of living in the New York City area, I got the itch to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time.  Yes, it sounds a bit touristy, but it’s a commute that many city dwellers take everyday with the millions of rabid bikers that take up one half of the narrow walkway.  Most say it’s a great experience and since we were interested in hitting Brooklyn for some pizza at Grimaldi's, what better way to get there than by walking over this iconic landmark?

We hopped on the number 6 train from the Financial District up to the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stop. As I stepped out of the station, I immediately recognized where I was and figured I probably walked past the entrance to the bridge hundreds of times on the way to Chinatown without even realizing it.  There were two entrance walkways onto the bridge, and after starting to enter on the wrong side, I realized that I needed to look for the little shape of a walking man carved into the sidewalk.  The other entrance was clearly for bicycles – a potentially dangerous side of the bridge to walk on and an often hotly debated topic of whether it should even be there.  I heard bicyclists can be brutal and don’t care much if they hit you.

The walkway on the bridge was very unique, as it’s built as a wooden boardwalk with really nothing underneath.  My wife became terrified when I asked her to take a look down, and she could easily see the water a great distance below through the cracks between the boards.  As you look over the edge of the railings on either side, you can see the cars racing to and from Brooklyn.  We saw this crazy tourist decide he wanted to walk across one of the beams and take a picture as he stood above the traffic.  Not the smartest thing to do – luckily, he came back to the walkway safely.

As we strolled along, we saw more of the historic structure of the bridge.  The suspenders and suspension cables arched up toward the bridge’s iconic towers, and you really feel engulfed by the scene.  As we hit the base of the towers, the bridge widened, and you have a little more breathing room to take in the views of both Manhattan and Brooklyn, which were fantastic.  We took this opportunity to check out the Statue of Liberty, which peaked around the corner of Lower Manhattan on the right.  Behind us, we could see Southstreet Seaport and the Woolworth Building, and to the left side, the Empire State Building and the neighboring Manhattan Bridge highlighted the skyline.  A few streetperformers were playing some jazz music nearby and a local artist was selling his pencil sketches of the Brooklyn Bridge, giving the atmosphere a real New York feel.

Overall, the bridge walk took us about an hour to cross and enjoy the scenery.  The views were fabulous, and it’s a great place to take pictures.  I still can’t believe we hadn’t done this sooner – but sometimes being too close to the city, you take it for granted.  In the end, we did make it to the Brooklyn side, but I’ll leave those adventures for another day…