Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, Finally!

The Brooklyn Bridge!

Yay Baby!

You know how some people say you should do something that scares you every day?  Well, I took this to heart before I got off of the subway to get to the Brooklyn Bridge.  I hate bridges, I hate bridges a lot!  It isn't the height or the bridge itself, but rather the whole water thing that bugs me.  I really am terrified of deep water which mystifies some.  Look everyone is afraid of something so I have learned not to judge people based on their fears, but some just can't understand the fear of water.  I can’t explain it, it is just reality!

After exiting the R train at City Hall, the bridge was several blocks away giving me time to rethink the whole bridge crossing thing.  My friend Noah knew what I was up to as he saw the whole caged animal looked written all over my face.  He told me I had wanted to do this and it was high time I did it! 

Woo Hoo the Verizon Building!

Slowly the bridge came into view as we past City Hall.  Look, it is a great bridge not my favorite as that honor belongs to the Verrazano Bridge, but it is a close second!  The walk towards it wasn't all that bad and I didn't really feel as if I was on a bridge at first.  But as the notorious wires came into view, I knew there was no turning back.  The only way to get over the fear, get an adrenaline rush by doing a big jump photo!  And I did!  I did the mother of all jump photos!  After that, I was ready!

First off, there were five billion people on the bridge, mostly tourists.  Not really a problem as it is a very touristy activity, but I didn't think it would be as crowded as it was, it was mind blowing! The second thing to note is that there are a lot of joggers running on the bridge and they get pretty pissy at people for walking on the bridge leisurely or for stopping to take photos.  This has always struck me as odd in NYC.  I used to run track in school and one of the worst surfaces you can run on is concrete, it is bad for the knees.  Next, you live in NYC, don't get annoyed with people for walking on the sidewalks, they are there for walking, not jogging, especially at rush hour.  And lastly, when you run, you take in large amounts of oxygen.  Why would you want to run in a congested place with tons of traffic just to inhale fumes deeply into your lungs when you could just go to the park?  This defeats the whole heath benefit aspect.  Rant over...but be aware, there are a lot of cars going across the bridge as well, they are just on the lower level, but you will smell the lovely exhaust at times.Just a note, because of the cars below, you never really come close to being near the edge by the water on the bridge which made it less painful and almost fun for me.  The bad thing is that when the traffic gets going you can feel the movement from time to time or maybe I am just a big baby!

I Survived and Got a Decent Pic!

There are two areas where you can pull over and get great photos of the skyline without pissing anyone off.  That is where you will find many tourists getting photos with the Empire State Building and the iconic Verizon Building.  I even got a photo to prove that I had survived my walk across the bridge.  Yay!

In the end, I think that walking over the bridge is great thing to do while in NYC, but be aware that it is windy a lot of the time which is great during the summer months, but bad news during the winter months unless you are a real thrill seeker.  At the end of the 45 minute walk a great time was had by all, and maybe just maybe if asked again, I would go if only to get my photo with the Verizon Building again.