Bonus Walk - Still Walking (Sixth Leg)

One would think the above columns are on some monument to a great leader, great thinker or, at least, a great pizza maker in Rome (even with the graffiti).  Low and behold, these columns line part of the pedestrian walkway of the Manhattan Bridge.  And so is this...

and this...

Why do I feel like we're bumping up against an architect's nightmare?  Part Roman, part Belle Epoch, part Deco, part Utilitarian...all on one bridge?  Scores of books have been written about the contruction of the "other" bridge easily viewed from this one.

But, how much do we really know about the Manhattan Bridge.  I am hoping that a quick trip to wikipedia will provide some answers.  Seems the bridge was built after the Brooklyn and Williamsburg...opened in December, 1905 (which would account for the Belle Epoch design, but not for the Roman, Deco or anything else).  Apparently, the walkway we're crossing now was closed for a bit (60 years) and only reopened in June of 2001.  It is a suspension bridge...and was built by the architect that designed an infamous suspension bridge in Tacoma, Washington that collapsed on opening day in 1940 (I heard about that bridge on a PBS special).  What does that bode for the poor Manhattan Bridge?   It's interesting, but it doesn't really get into the hodgepodge of styles...though it does say that the north walkway is a bike path and it does go into a number of movies that have used it as a prop or backdrop, including the remake of "Taking of the Pelham One, Two, Three" where Denzel Washington and John Travolta fight it out on the very walkway on which we're now standing.  I don't see them anywhere, but I have seen quite a few "unsavory characters" passing by, not the least of which are Nature Girl and The Old Guy who, per usual, are quite a ways ahead of me as I stop every few steps to take another photo.  I haven't been able to catch any of the pithy conversation they must be having...but I will bet it has little to do with the walk, or the bridge, or what they are seeing around them.

As we walk over the half-way point of the bridge and start a barely perceptible decent back into Manhattan, it really feels like the humble Manhattan Bridge is more "of the neighborhood" rather than the majestic Brooklyn Bridge, which seems to be a bit "above it all."   I was amazed how much of what I believe is Southern Chinatown we're already seeing, and at some pretty interesting angles.Why is the phrase "seedy underbelly" popping up in my too-fertile brain.  Ahhh...this is much better.

At last, we're off the actual bridge...and at the Manhattan entrance to the bridge, which does spill out squarely into Chinatown proper...I'm amazed to find that NG and The OG have actually waied for me before stepping foot back on "the island to end all islands."

Now, for the ceremonial end-of-walk group photo. 

It was taken by these lovely ladies...whose names are lost in the "four+ months later" mist of time.

I vaguely remember that one lived here in the city and the other was visiting from the Midwest or somewhere "out there."  I think they were college roomates, or at least friends from school, just like NG and me (though a tad younger and way, way thinner than we ever thought of being, even "back in the day"). 

I'm going to come back with one more leg about this adventure...more ruminations on the two bridges we just crossed, what was inbetween and how I felt about it all.   So, get ready...