Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, is still the most beautiful bridge in New York and one of the finest 19th-century engineering works in the world. Walking it — the pedestrian walkway runs along the centre of the bridge, elevated above the traffic — is one of the essential New York experiences. The wire cables radiating from the stone Gothic towers, the views of the Manhattan skyline to the west and the Brooklyn waterfront to the east, the hum of traffic below: it works at any time of day but is best at dawn or in the last light of evening.

Walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn (about 30 minutes) rather than the reverse, ending in DUMBO where the bridge lands. From there the view back through the Manhattan Bridge to the Empire State Building is one of the most photographed in New York, and the surrounding neighbourhood has some of the city's best coffee, pizza, and waterfront parks.

things to do sight architecture brooklyn heights
A story
John Roebling, who designed the bridge, died before it was built — struck by a ferry on the day he was finalising the site survey. His son Washington Roebling took over and was then paralysed from the waist down by decompression sickness contracted while working in the pneumatic caissons used to sink the bridge's foundations. For the last decade of construction he watched through a telescope from his apartment in Brooklyn Heights, with his wife Emily Roebling relaying instructions to the engineers. She became, in effect, the site manager.

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