Make a Day of it in Downtown Manhattan: The Brooklyn Bridge Walkway
Here at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, we strive to bring you a wide variety of affordable, educational and quality entertainment. One of the many reasons we do this is because we care about the vitality and growth of our community in Downtown Manhattan. It is one of this blog’s new goals to get the word out about how truly rich and vibrant this part of the city is. We will be featuring a series of posts about the many sites, attractions and restaurants in the downtown area.
This post will feature one of New York’s greatest landmarks, The Brooklyn Bridge! The walking entrance to the famed bridge is just feet away from the Schimmel Center, which makes walking the bridge the perfect activity to engage in before coming to one of our performances. Officially opened on May 24th, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first steel suspension bridge of its kind and boasted the longest span of any bridge up to that time. It is so named because it connects the borough of Manhattan to its neighbor, Brooklyn, over the East River.
The famed wooden, pedestrian walk way has been a staple feature of the bridge since its opening day. Traveling the walk way has become one of the quintessential New York pastimes. Thanks to being featured in numerous movies such as It Happened in Brooklyn, Kate and Leopold and Enchanted, as well as a popular Geico advertisement
An idea of what the walkway looked like after it had opened in 1883.
, it is perhaps the best known pedestrian walkway in the world. Possibly the best reasons for its popularity are the stunning, breathtaking views it offers of the two boroughs.
Walking across the wooden planks, one certainly gets a sense of the hustle and bustle of the traffic below. Vehicles whizz by beneath your feet completely unaware of the magical place above, a place where pedestrians and bicyclists alike smile and acknowledge one another. Above your head is an intricate web-like pattern of cables crossing each other and forming the bridge’s strong structural integrity, coming to a peak atop Neo-Gothic towers. A slight breeze from the river comes over you. In the distance, the iconic Manhattan skyline glimmers back at you in all its illustrious glory. There is no better place to truly take in this enchanting city and there is no better way to spend a crisp autumn afternoon than on the fabled walk-way. Be sure to bring the camera (or iPhone) with you because the photo opportunities (or Kodak moments as we used to say) will be endless!
The Brooklyn Bridge
The Lower Manhattan side entrance to the walkway is located at Park Row and City Hall. You can take the 4/5/6 and exit at the City Hall stop and you will be right there. The pedestrian walkway is accessible from Brooklyn at Tillary/Adams Streets or a staircase on Prospect St between Cadman Plaza East and West.
This exciting, free attraction would be the perfect activity for the family before coming to hear the space age pop music of our season-opening act, SONORAMA: The Lost Space Age Pop Music of Esquivel performed by Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica on Saturday September 21! Look for more information about this exciting guest in our next blog post! The autumnal equinox will be the optimal time for taking in the joys the bridge has to offer you.
For more on what Downtown Manhattan has to offer, check back at our blog regularly. It is my sincerest hope that you do take advantage of this world-famous landmark. Whatever you do though, don’t let anyone try to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge!
See you at the Schimmel!
Michael Torbet
Pace Presents 2013-14 Blogger
