Video & Photos - Walking Across the Brooklyn Bridge During Sunset

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The Brooklyn Bridge spans over one mile connecting Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan and offering pedestrians who walk and bike across the bridge spectacular views of city skylines. Recently one of the four NYC Waterfalls is constructed underneath the Brooklyn Bridge visible from the Manhattan side.

Although walking across the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan offers a more dramatic skyline view, the opposite path is equally charming. Of course be sure to stop once in a while and turn around to soak in the views.

Pedestrian access to the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn side is from either Tillary/Adams Streets (in between the auto entrance/exit), or a staircase on Prospect St between Cadman Plaza East and West. In Manhattan, the pedestrian walkway is accessible from the end of Centre Street, or through the unpaid south staircase of Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall IRT subway station.

The Brooklyn Bridge has a wide pedestrian walkway open to walkers and cyclists, in the center of the bridge and higher than the automobile lanes. While the bridge has always permitted the passage of pedestrians across its span, its role in allowing thousands to cross takes on a special importance in times of difficulty when usual means of crossing the East River have become unavailable.

During transit strikes by the Transport Workers Union in 1980 and 2005 the bridge was used by people commuting to work, with Mayors Koch and Bloomberg crossing the bridge as a gesture to the affected public. Following the 1965, 1977 and 2003 Blackouts and most famously after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the bridge was used by people in Manhattan to leave the city after subway service was suspended.