Bridge Hopping Progress
I posted the following article in my journal last Feb. 22nd, 2007 at 8:43 AM...
I've been wanting to do this for about a year and finally...
Thursday, February 21, 2008 @ 6:30am - Williamsburg Bridge=CONQUERED!!!
One down, two to go...
--------------------
Weekend in New York
Crossing Over, Step by Step
By SETH KUGEL
Published: July 16, 2006
At least a dozen bridges from Manhattan to the other boroughs offer pedestrian lanes and a bit of adventure. So why do most visitors merely cross the Brooklyn Bridge, then call it a day? Here are three bridges worth the walk, especially for the (most un-Manhattan-like) neighborhoods that beckon on the other side.
5 Pointz in Queens serves as a museum of aerosol art.
WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE
This 7,308-foot suspension bridge was the longest in the world when it was completed in 1903. Only the north side walkway is open, so once you get to Brooklyn, walk down South Fourth Street and make a right on Havemeyer Street over to Broadway. Turn left into the gritty kind of business district that seems to exist everywhere elevated trains rattle overhead. Then take the first right down Marcy Avenue past La Borinqueña, one of the areas few remaining Puerto Rican-owned bodegas.
Youre headed toward Lee Street, the main Hasidic strip, a fascinating place to explore on a Sunday (on Saturday, businesses are closed). The signs are in Yiddish and Hebrew, and the restaurants divided into dairy and meat. Conservative dress long sleeves, long pants is required for men and women in some places.
That includes Gottliebs restaurant, on Roebling Street, which serves pastrami sandwiches and noodle and potato kugel. Your dairy alternative is the signless Cafe W, on Lee Street, a busy place with a salad bar, brick oven pizza and sushi. Williamsburg also has a kosher candy store, which opened last March: Chocolate Castle has Israeli brands like Klik and Elite/Megadim.
On your way back over the bridge, dont miss the Leaving Brooklyn Oy Vey sign.
MACOMBS DAM BRIDGE
The most human-scale of the three bridges here, with only four lanes and no trains, this is a metal truss swing bridge completed in 1895, where a dam once stood. Back then, the baseball stadium was on the Manhattan side the Polo Grounds but now, it is in the Bronx, your destination: the neighborhood around Yankee Stadium. Before crossing, check out the Hooper Fountain, with drinking fountains for humans and horses.
Its about a 10-minute walk across the bridge. Up the Harlem River to the left, you can see the High Bridge, the oldest bridge in Manhattan, now closed.
Even if there isnt a Yankees game, the area is bustling. Stans Sports World, purveyors of all things pinstriped, is open daily. The elegant Bronx County Building, which houses the Bronx Supreme Court, is three blocks up 161st Street from the stadium. The Bronx Museum of Art is just north on the Grand Concourse.
There are also plenty of food options; one of the most popular is the Yankee Tavern, which serves bar food and beer with attitude. You can sample Dominican and Puerto Rican cuisine at the equally informal Molino Rojo.
QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
You gain a perspective walking over bridges that you cant get from a car. On the Queens side of this bridge, famously known as the 59th Street Bridge, about a half-hour walk, to the left are the Queensbridge Houses, with battlement-type rooftops that leave you half expecting to see Dorothy fleeing from the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.
To the right is Long Island City, where many attractions are a 10-minute walk south. The easiest route is to follow Jackson Avenue. Youll pass Court House Square, with its fountain, and the Citicorp Building, Queenss tallest building. A little farther down is P.S. 1, the contemporary museum tied to the Museum of Modern Art and thriving in an old public school.
Down nearby Davis Street is the wacky 5 Pointz building, an industrial complex that houses garment factories but is covered with aerosol art that would be called graffiti if it had been painted illegally.
So, where to eat? There are several choices, from the Court Square Diner nearby to a few restaurants a few blocks farther down Jackson Avenue: the Jackson Avenue Steakhouse and the traditional Italian restaurant Manducatis, where the Times critic Frank Bruni recommended the thick, juicy, first-rate pork chops smothered in scallions and red peppers, but called the carbonara gluey.
Too bad, because a little carb-loading wouldnt hurt for the trek back across the bridge.
VISITOR INFORMATION
CROSSING THE WILLIAMSBURG
Manhattan side: Pedestrian entrance is at Delancey and Clinton Streets on the Lower East Side. The nearest subway stops are Delancey Street (F train) or Essex Street (J, M or Z).
Brooklyn side: The north-side pedestrian entrance is at South Fifth Street and South Fifth Place, near the large Ukrainian Church and the statue of George Washington on horseback. The south side is closed. Nearest subway station is Marcy Avenue (J, M or Z).
Food: La Borinqueña, 175 Marcy Avenue; (718) 384-9750. Gottliebs Restaurant, 352 Roebling Street near Division Avenue, (718) 384-9037. Cafe W, 45 Lee Avenue (near Wilson Street), (718) 302-3548. Chocolate Castle, 175 Division Avenue, (718) 387-3214.
CROSSING THE MACOMBS DAM
Manhattan side: Pedestrian entrance is at the northeast corner of 155th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, a block east of the 155th Street stop for the C train. Do not use the south side.
Bronx side: Enter from 161st Street and Jerome Avenue. The closest subway station is 161st Street, Yankee Stadium (the 4, B and D). The B6 bus crosses the bridge and runs along 155th Street.
Dont miss: Stans Sports World, 850 River Avenue between 158th and 161st Streets, (718) 665-9360. Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, (718) 681-6000; www.bronxmuseum.org (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). Yankee Tavern, 72 East 161st Street, (718) 292-6130. Molino Rojo, 101 East 161st Street, (718) 538-9642.
CROSSING THE QUEENSBORO
Manhattan side: Enter on East 60th Street halfway between First and Second Avenues. Nearest subway stop is Lexington Avenue-59th Street (the F, N, R, W, 4, 5, and 6 trains).
Queens side: Enter at Crescent Street and Queens Plaza North. Best subway is the 7 train to 45th Road-Court House Square, though stops for the E, V and G trains are also nearby.
Art and Food: P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue, (718) 784-2084; www.ps1.org. 5 Pointz, Davis Street at Jackson Avenue. Court Square Diner, 45-30 23rd Street at Jackson Avenue, (718) 392-1222. Manducatis, 13-27 Jackson Avenue, (718) 729-4602. Jackson Avenue Steakhouse, 12-23 Jackson Avenue, (718) 784-1412.
I've been wanting to do this for about a year and finally...
Thursday, February 21, 2008 @ 6:30am - Williamsburg Bridge=CONQUERED!!!
One down, two to go...
--------------------
Weekend in New York
Crossing Over, Step by Step
By SETH KUGEL
Published: July 16, 2006
At least a dozen bridges from Manhattan to the other boroughs offer pedestrian lanes and a bit of adventure. So why do most visitors merely cross the Brooklyn Bridge, then call it a day? Here are three bridges worth the walk, especially for the (most un-Manhattan-like) neighborhoods that beckon on the other side.
5 Pointz in Queens serves as a museum of aerosol art.
WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE
This 7,308-foot suspension bridge was the longest in the world when it was completed in 1903. Only the north side walkway is open, so once you get to Brooklyn, walk down South Fourth Street and make a right on Havemeyer Street over to Broadway. Turn left into the gritty kind of business district that seems to exist everywhere elevated trains rattle overhead. Then take the first right down Marcy Avenue past La Borinqueña, one of the areas few remaining Puerto Rican-owned bodegas.
Youre headed toward Lee Street, the main Hasidic strip, a fascinating place to explore on a Sunday (on Saturday, businesses are closed). The signs are in Yiddish and Hebrew, and the restaurants divided into dairy and meat. Conservative dress long sleeves, long pants is required for men and women in some places.
That includes Gottliebs restaurant, on Roebling Street, which serves pastrami sandwiches and noodle and potato kugel. Your dairy alternative is the signless Cafe W, on Lee Street, a busy place with a salad bar, brick oven pizza and sushi. Williamsburg also has a kosher candy store, which opened last March: Chocolate Castle has Israeli brands like Klik and Elite/Megadim.
On your way back over the bridge, dont miss the Leaving Brooklyn Oy Vey sign.
MACOMBS DAM BRIDGE
The most human-scale of the three bridges here, with only four lanes and no trains, this is a metal truss swing bridge completed in 1895, where a dam once stood. Back then, the baseball stadium was on the Manhattan side the Polo Grounds but now, it is in the Bronx, your destination: the neighborhood around Yankee Stadium. Before crossing, check out the Hooper Fountain, with drinking fountains for humans and horses.
Its about a 10-minute walk across the bridge. Up the Harlem River to the left, you can see the High Bridge, the oldest bridge in Manhattan, now closed.
Even if there isnt a Yankees game, the area is bustling. Stans Sports World, purveyors of all things pinstriped, is open daily. The elegant Bronx County Building, which houses the Bronx Supreme Court, is three blocks up 161st Street from the stadium. The Bronx Museum of Art is just north on the Grand Concourse.
There are also plenty of food options; one of the most popular is the Yankee Tavern, which serves bar food and beer with attitude. You can sample Dominican and Puerto Rican cuisine at the equally informal Molino Rojo.
QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
You gain a perspective walking over bridges that you cant get from a car. On the Queens side of this bridge, famously known as the 59th Street Bridge, about a half-hour walk, to the left are the Queensbridge Houses, with battlement-type rooftops that leave you half expecting to see Dorothy fleeing from the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.
To the right is Long Island City, where many attractions are a 10-minute walk south. The easiest route is to follow Jackson Avenue. Youll pass Court House Square, with its fountain, and the Citicorp Building, Queenss tallest building. A little farther down is P.S. 1, the contemporary museum tied to the Museum of Modern Art and thriving in an old public school.
Down nearby Davis Street is the wacky 5 Pointz building, an industrial complex that houses garment factories but is covered with aerosol art that would be called graffiti if it had been painted illegally.
So, where to eat? There are several choices, from the Court Square Diner nearby to a few restaurants a few blocks farther down Jackson Avenue: the Jackson Avenue Steakhouse and the traditional Italian restaurant Manducatis, where the Times critic Frank Bruni recommended the thick, juicy, first-rate pork chops smothered in scallions and red peppers, but called the carbonara gluey.
Too bad, because a little carb-loading wouldnt hurt for the trek back across the bridge.
VISITOR INFORMATION
CROSSING THE WILLIAMSBURG
Manhattan side: Pedestrian entrance is at Delancey and Clinton Streets on the Lower East Side. The nearest subway stops are Delancey Street (F train) or Essex Street (J, M or Z).
Brooklyn side: The north-side pedestrian entrance is at South Fifth Street and South Fifth Place, near the large Ukrainian Church and the statue of George Washington on horseback. The south side is closed. Nearest subway station is Marcy Avenue (J, M or Z).
Food: La Borinqueña, 175 Marcy Avenue; (718) 384-9750. Gottliebs Restaurant, 352 Roebling Street near Division Avenue, (718) 384-9037. Cafe W, 45 Lee Avenue (near Wilson Street), (718) 302-3548. Chocolate Castle, 175 Division Avenue, (718) 387-3214.
CROSSING THE MACOMBS DAM
Manhattan side: Pedestrian entrance is at the northeast corner of 155th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, a block east of the 155th Street stop for the C train. Do not use the south side.
Bronx side: Enter from 161st Street and Jerome Avenue. The closest subway station is 161st Street, Yankee Stadium (the 4, B and D). The B6 bus crosses the bridge and runs along 155th Street.
Dont miss: Stans Sports World, 850 River Avenue between 158th and 161st Streets, (718) 665-9360. Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, (718) 681-6000; www.bronxmuseum.org (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). Yankee Tavern, 72 East 161st Street, (718) 292-6130. Molino Rojo, 101 East 161st Street, (718) 538-9642.
CROSSING THE QUEENSBORO
Manhattan side: Enter on East 60th Street halfway between First and Second Avenues. Nearest subway stop is Lexington Avenue-59th Street (the F, N, R, W, 4, 5, and 6 trains).
Queens side: Enter at Crescent Street and Queens Plaza North. Best subway is the 7 train to 45th Road-Court House Square, though stops for the E, V and G trains are also nearby.
Art and Food: P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue, (718) 784-2084; www.ps1.org. 5 Pointz, Davis Street at Jackson Avenue. Court Square Diner, 45-30 23rd Street at Jackson Avenue, (718) 392-1222. Manducatis, 13-27 Jackson Avenue, (718) 729-4602. Jackson Avenue Steakhouse, 12-23 Jackson Avenue, (718) 784-1412.