Bonus Walk -- The Borough of My Birth (Second Leg)

The blog has left Manhattan for the first time.  Our focus is now on Brooklyn -- the County of Kings, birthplace of the famous, the notorious...and one Walking Woman.    I believe it's about center span of the Brooklyn Bridge that one is officially in Brooklyn, though our band of walkers (Nature Girl, the Old Guy and me) were much more interested in the "site maps" around the South Tower of the bridge that pointed out "buildings of interest" in Manhattan. 

Unfortunately, these maps dated back to the early 1960s, even before the World Trade Center went up, so Sacajewa had to use her somewhat suspect "internal compass" to locate some of the buildings on these bronze relief maps. 

While "Sac" was busy with her trailblazing ways, I was going into photo overdrive, taking "artsy" shots of the "arch" of the Brooklyn Tower and whatever else struck my camera's fancy... 

...while the OG was trying to pretend he didn't know either one of us.

We started walking downhill, moving ever closer to the Brooklyn waterfront.  I took a parting shot at duplicating the Joseph Stella drawing...Close, but still no cigar!

As we got closer to land, we noticed some interesting writing in the walkway, which had turned from wooden slats into concrete...Isn't this a warm (and informative) welcome to Brooklyn?  Well -- not all of Brooklyn (actually, the areas right around the Bridge).   Certainly a bit more welcoming, and helpful, than the signs motorists crossing the Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn get to see.

The area around us on this side of the bridge was a bit less picturesque than on the Manhattan side, but not without its unique BQE charms.The key to this side of the bridge is to "look up."And, while we're looking up, let's talk about the glass clocks found at the top of the building (name unknown) between the Brookly and Manhattan Bridges.  I am sure the building is now "high priced" apartments (probably owned by Jehovah's Witnesses, like much of the real estate in this part of Brooklyn)...but why would anyone have gone through the trouble and expense of building glass clocks at the top of what was once either a light manufacturing or warehouse building?  I have always marveled at the fact that you could see right into the clocks.   Without question, they are the coolest windows in all of New York City!  Can you imagine the view from these windows?  And, why don't I live there?

From those lofty thoughts down to reality at "ground zero."  Our "ground zero," which is decending from the Bridge to the Brooklyn waterfront street level.  Not exactly what one would expect after the lovely welcome on the bridge path itself.  But, I like to think this exit harkens back to when the Brooklyn waterfront was a much more sinister part of town...full of dive bars (in the 1900s sense of the words -- not the dive bars of our college days), flop houses and other real "dens of iniquity" that catered to the sailors, teamsters and longshoremen that hauled cargo, mundane and exotic, from every seaworthy vessel from frigates to "superfreighters" that tied up at the Brooklyn piers.  Certainly, "On The Waterfront" is the quintessential record of this place in the late 1940s (when the unions ruled and were rife with mobsters).  Hustlers, crooks, prostitutes, sinners (and the occassional saint) roamed the streets...and I believe nothing really changed much until many of the piers were closed down in the 1970s.  After years of urban blight, citywide gentrification of these empty areas in the 1990s led to what is there today...pretty much, another urban oasis (a little like we saw on our walk down the Hudson River).

While you can see a few remnants of the bad old days in some of the buildings still standing, the vast majority of the area has been "repurposed" into the Fulton's Landing area and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), filled with parks, historical buildings, artists lofts, music venues and "family-friendly" apartments.  Though I had visited Fulton's Landing before, DUMBO was really virgin territory for me to explore...an exciting thought as we decended those concrete steps, with cold stone walls on either side and turned towards the light. 

But that is the tale of the next installment of this Bonus Blog...

Bonus Walk -- Like A Bridge Over Calm Waters (First Leg)

Here I am, hunched over my computer, nursing the latter stages of Bronchitis, with my space heater turned up high to ward off the winter's chill.  Yet, I smile and feel much warmer when I think back two Sundays, to a time I was healthy and all was somewhat right with the world on a balmy, cloudless 65-degree day.  The Old Guy and I are standing in lower Manhattan at about 9:00 a.m., next to City Hall to be precise, awaiting the imminent arrival of Nature Girl for a walk "of epic proportions" across the legendary Brooklyn Bridge.  We had parked on the "nether" side (west side) of the park and briskly strolled through it, coffees in hand, invigorated by the walk before us.  Even though you can no longer walk right past the steps of City Hall, a stroll through the southern end of the park is quite pleasant...

...harking back to the 1900s and a more gracious, graceful way of life... ...wth some signs of modernity peeking through.

With the arrival of Nature Girl (aka Sacajewa), still without her signature hat, we walked across to the entrance to the pedestrian walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge, stopping for the requisite group shot.  Our photographer this time was a subject of the British Empire, a lady from London who had just finished trekking over the Bridge with her daughter.Did we get their names?  No, we did not.  So, let's call them Mrs. Brown and her lovely daughter!   I think Mrs. Brown was a bit startled by our motley trio and our photo request...she moved away from us rather quickly once this shot was taken. We quickly fell into the usual "walk" pattern...me falling behind the group as I take photos of everything around me.  This is what it looks like if you're walking backwards or sideways up the ramp on the Manhattan side of the bridge (not that you see many people, aside from me, doing that).

When I straightened out and started shooting straight ahead, I was greeted by waves of people of every stripe walking or biking over the city's first, and most historic, bridge.  It spans a trecherous waterway (the East River, I believe) that separates what was once the largest, and second largest, cities in America.  19th Century America, that is! 

Yes, Brooklyn was once the second largest city in the country...but soon after the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, which was some time in the 1880s, Brooklyn relenquished its sovereignty (likely not without a fight) to become part of Greater New York in 1899 (along with Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island) -- the year my Aunt Angie was born (which is appropo of nothing related to the walk, it's just that the year or her birth sticks in my mind).

The OG and I had walked the bridge many, many moons ago, back in that storied time when we actually lived in Manhattan (I call that time "the glory days").  But, I was surprised to find that NG had never made this trek before!  One of the facts I didn't recall from my previous walk over the Bridge was how much of an incline there is until you're on the main part of the span.  After this, I could probably qualify for the Olympic Mountain Climbing Team.  Oh, silly me, mountain climbing isn't an Olympic sport -- so I guess we'll never know if I could have been "a contender."  But, I digress...I also forgot that there were lovely benches on this part of the span (but we were too soon into "the walk" for a sit-down).

As I kept stopping every few feet, to take pictures, OG and NG were becoming smaller and smaller in my camera's lense.  I tried to hustle to catch up to them and partake of their pithy conversation, but images kept calling to me as we moved out over the water.   

We were getting close to the "iconic" shot of the "cathedral" shape that forms the two concrete pillars of the bridge.  It is the unique beauty of these pillars and the amazing lattice-work like cables that radiate from them, that makes the Brooklyn Bridge the most painted and photographed bridge in the world (okay...I'm not sure where the Golden Gate Bridge falls in this competition--oopps, poor choice of words--but I think my above statement must be correct since The Brooklyn Bridge is older).  Ipso Facto!

Of course, the most famous rendering of the "cathedral" is the series of paintings by Joseph Stella, done in the 1930s.  It's the image I see in my "mind's eye" every time I drive over the span...and certainly now that we're likely walking right over the spot where the aritst stood to capture it on canvas (actually, it was probably somewhere between the two towers).  At least one (or more) of his paintings from The Brooklyn Bridge series hangs in the Whitney.

The other iconic image of the bridge is a very early photograph taken of a person standing at the edge of a not-yet completed Brooklyn Bridge, looking like he had climbed out there on one of the cables.  If I recall my Brooklyn Bridge history from a PBS special when the bridge celebrated it's 100th Anniversary sometime in the 1980s, they used to charge people to walk out as far as the construction would let them, in an effort to defray costs.  It is amazing the old-time photos you see from various and sundry sites, like the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls and other natural and man-made monoliths, before safety became a major issue...there were little or no barriers for tourists and "certain death" if they slipped while peering down.  I liked the "wildness" and freedom of it all...not that you would have caught me near the edge of any of those places.  Though I did risk life and limb back in my high school days during a trip to Copenhagen when I had to climb from one fire escape to another to escape a room locked from the outside.  The reasons why are too long and ridiculous to go into...suffice it to say I was fueled by a bit too much Aquivit or Kronenborg.  Still, as I didn't break my neck, it was exhilerating to "cheat death."  That was a long digression...
We're just about at the first tower, and the view is terrific.
 

I finally meet up with the dynamic duo, who have stopped to admire the view and read the dedications to the builders, especially the Roeblings (father and son) who both poured their lives (literally and figuratively) into building this marvel of 19th Century engineering. 

Until the bridges of the Spanish builder Santiago Calatrava, I don't think any bridge as graceful and architecturally astounding has ever been made.  And, there it sits, at the bottom of little old Manhattan (or the top of little old Brooklyn). 

We're about half-way across the bridge right now...and we'll pick up with our stroll to the second tower and descent to the Brooklyn waterfront.