Long ago, I left the New York tourist track and started exploring the city’s lesser-knowns. After scores of such visits, which frequently led me straight to the areas of Manhattan I’ve come to favor, I decided a trip to a destination completely unexplored by me was in order. So I headed where thousands go every day but I’d never thought to venture, across the bridge into Brooklyn.
Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge is actually a fairly popular activity for some visitors to New York. I had read 2,000 people a day cross its 5,989 feet by foot. As I started my walk, it became apparent that this information was probably wrong. There must be a couple thousand people at any given time on that bridge.
The world’s longest suspension bridge when it opened in 1883, this is a mammoth structure. From a distance, its presence in the lower Manhattan skyline is an impressive sight in itself, but when walking along its wooden planks, past its structural weave of thick steel cables and ropes and gazing up at its two colossal stone towers rising out of the East River, I understood why so many people make crossing the Brooklyn Bridge a part of their New York itinerary. I was slowed by crowds of people, and by my desire to stop and take a photo every couple of minutes – so it took a good half hour to cross.
People who have come to fill their memory cards with photos of steel, stone and skyline are not the only traffic on this bridge, though. Others are on their way to their routine lives crossed along with us, on bicycles with riders ringing their bells to warn us out of their way, on foot with purposeful strides and eyes fixed straight ahead and in cars whizzing by on the opposite side of the railing.
My own purposeful but slow stride was set to take me to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), a veritable wonderland of shops, galleries and restaurants. I had read DUMBO lies beneath the Brooklyn Bridge and the neighboring Manhattan Bridge, where upscale shops stand alongside old railroad tracks embedded in cobblestone streets. This 19th Century meets 21st Century look was, in my opinion, the primary appeal of this much-ballyhooed area. So I left and walked uphill to explore a couple of Brooklyn’s well-known neighborhoods.
I strolled through Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill, filled with the brownstones I’d expected and a peace and calm I had not. After stopping for a Mediterranean food fix on Henry Street at Heights Falafel, I walked back on down to the waterfront and towards the bridge.
First I came to the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park on the banks of the East River. Since it was a clear day, I was able to see the Statue of Liberty to the left, lower Manhattan straight across the river, and the Empire State Building reaching above the rest of the city to the right. Next, at the Fulton Ferry Landing, where water taxis speed around and people mill about gazing at the views across the river. I discovered that many times a week visitors could board a barge and listen to live chamber music inside. Unfortunately, the music was not playing today, so I vowed to visit again when I returned to Brooklyn.
Sabina Lohr finds that home is not where the heart is, and a good chunk of her life revolves around plotting her next trip, or traveling. She has a Bachelor of Arts with a major in German which, like many liberal arts degrees, has gotten her nowhere except overseas to study. Unlike so many other travelers, she has never kept track of the number of countries she’s traveled to but knows her continent count stands at only three. The other four are calling.
Last 5 posts by Sabina Lohr
- The Jaws Bridge of Martha's Vineyard - September 5th, 2009
- Newport, Still Echoing with the Roaring Twenties - August 19th, 2009
- An Island's Island, Chappaquiddick - August 5th, 2009
