Brooklyn Bridge, New York City

An extraordinary experience (furthermore if you live the big blackout of NY while you are in the middle and you have to go across all the city until Harlem ) that will give you a new point of view of the city.

It's better to go to the Brooklyn side by subway and then come back to Manhatan by foot.

There are several panels that informs you what is what in the landscape you are seeing.

Take a note bring some water and if its summer a cap.

Take a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge in the late evening and sit for as long as you wish. Take in the skyline during the most dramatic moment of the day. Watch the daylight fade and the night skies come alive. It is very rewarding and absolutely free of cost.

The Brooklyn Bridge was built when Brooklyn was a comparatively sleepy little hamlet, but it is now a crucial passageway for thousands of commuters and tourists from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

Ground was broken for the bridge in 1870, and due to the dangerous conditions. about twenty people died while building the bridge. It was an architectural milestone at the time, and is still beautiful and impressive!

First, have pizza at the best NYC-style pizza place in the area--Grimaldi's (see my restaurant tips), just under the Brooklyn Bridge. Then, walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan for a spectacular view of the skyline. A few plaques on the bridge give its history and identify a few landmarks in the skyline.

...especially at night. It offers the BEST view of Manhattan. I promise you on a nice night, this will be a wonderful experience.

Take the subway either to the Brookly side (High St station) and walk back to Manhattan or walk from the Manhattan side (City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge station).

Make sure to make a stop on the Promenade on the Brooklyn side and enjoy the view from there.

This is one of the great free travel experiences in New York City. (Another one is the Staten Island Ferry.) You may not want to do it in both directions, but I strongly recommend going at least one-way. Just be sure to watch for bicyclists - do the right thing by staying out of their lane!

Let's hear it for the Roeblings, father and son, John and Washington, who in the early 1870s revolutionized bridge construction around the world with their design and execution of this amazing piece of engineering.

I'll write a bit more about the bridge on my Brooklyn page.

You are in NYC , well like every tourist you must walk on the Brooklyn bridge and take pictures:))

Brooklyn Bridge, whose construction ran through two generations of Roeblings between 1869 and its completion in 1883. The twin masonry support towers of this vast span necessitated the building of foundations 78 feet below the water level...

Length of river span: 1595.5 feet
Total length of bridge: 5989 feet
Width of bridge floor: 85 feet
Suspension cables: four, each 15.75 inches in diameter and 3578.5 feet long, containing 5434 wires each, for a total length of 3515 miles of wire per cable
Foundation depth below high water, Brooklyn: 44 feet 6 inches
Foundation depth below high water, Manhattan: 78 feet 6 inches
Tower height above high water: 276 feet 6 inches
Roadway height above high water: 119 feet (at towers)
Total weight, not including masonry: 14,680 tons.

This is one of the world's great suspension bridges. It was the largest in the world at the time it was finally opened in 1883.

Everyone seems to appreciate the aesthetics of all the lines and curves of the bridge. You see people take about a hundred photos. Apart from that and the great view of Manhattan it's got a nice atmosphere itself. I usually go half way and come back, but if you want to use the bridge what it was actually built for, you can cross over to Brooklyn or Manhattan. :-)

Spare a thought for the chief engineer. He had already had a hand crushed before he worked on this. He then got his foot crushed in an accident here. Quite a guy: he turned down the offer of anaesthetic when they amputated his toes... but later died of tetanus as a result of his injury.

Then his son took over and ended up getting the bends and having to supervise with a telescope from his home. See the website link below.