The Brooklyn Bridge: Spectacular Views!

If a picture is worth a thousand words...then I hope that the following pictures I took from the Brooklyn Bridge will be worth a million words.  Enjoy!

When I was in my early and mid teens, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to visit people I knew who were bused in from the other side wasn't really an option.  There was a bit of territorial rivalry between those of us who lived on the Delancy (Manhattan) side and those of us who lived on the Williamsburg (Brooklyn) side.

On this day, this trip my trip over the Brooklyn Bridge became sort of a walk back through time, as well as a walk into the future.  My memories of the other side of the Brooklyn bridge being home to urban blight (even more than my Manhattan side, which was no bargain either) started to fade away as I started to approach the hoards of people walking across the bridge.

There were people from all walks of life on the bridge.  There were bicyclists, runners, walkers, workers, students, families, foreigners as well as natives - there was all walks of life crossing.  There was a culture on the bridge.  You could buy yourself water at several points.  People like me who stopped to take pictures.  Some who just kept walking.

To go along with this culture that crossed the bridge was of course the spectacular views from the bridge.  To those that crossed this bridge everyday, it wasn't really a big deal.  But for those of us who had never crossed this bridge by foot and only by bus or car (or only by subway) it was a great moment to actually be able to stop and take in and enjoy the beauty of New York City.  This bridge was constructed between 1869 and 1883.

It take a lot of ingenuity and idealism to build a bridge such as this.  It is a shame that more people do not take the time to continue to build such bridges within our minds, our cultures and our ideologies.  There always still has to be someone thinking about war, destruction and senseless murder.  Yet when we turn that unnecessary and negative energy into positive energy - when we focus our minds on building and blending...we can achieve so much, much more.  We can build things that last for a millennium.

 

Between two Boroughs, between two different parts of the city that use to fight among each other, now there exits a life and culture of more tolerance and economic opportunity for all who cross either side.  Where there was once urban blight on both sides, there is now enormous urbane growth and sprawling downtown areas - on both sides!  Even when crushed by fear and evil, positive energy and life still pushes through.

And so I crossed the bridge this day.  But it wasn't just a bridge that I crossed, it was the future that I walked into.  The unbelievably bright future of the "new" Brooklyn...

To be continued....