Brooklyn Bridge Park: More Access to the NYC Skyline is Always a Good Thing
The Fulton Ferry Landing, the pier directly underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, is one of my very favorite spots in New York City. Not only does it have some of the best views of the Manhattan skyline and the East River bridges, but it has a terrific concert venue (Bargemusic) and excellent ice cream (Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, if you don't mind a wait). My first date with my fiancee, a pretty unforgettable night, also took place there. So when a new public park was open on the piers immediately adjacent to the Fulton Ferry Landing in March, I was pretty enthusiastic.
I wasn't disappointed. Then again, with a view like this, it would have been pretty hard to mess up the new Brooklyn Bridge Park:
After many years of planning, bureaucratic nonsense, and finally construction, Brooklyn Bridge Park became a reality on March 22, 2010. It will eventually encompass six piers along the downtown Brooklyn waterfront, adjacent to America's favorite parking lot, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. This is actually one of the future piers:
At first glance, it wouldn't appear that this would become the type of park you'd want to take your kids to. But by a pretty cool feat of engineering, the first pier to be completed, Pier 1, definitely is:
The combination of pristine green space and old factories in the background make me feel like I'm in Camden Yards in Baltimore...which is a good thing, since I love baseball.
The park has a waterfront playground (I don't photograph playgrounds since it makes me feel like a pedophile) and lots of hipsters (which I usually don't photograph either). The most unique geographical feature of the park is a giant granite pavilion, which allows a tiny bit of an aerial perspective of the city if you don't have the energy to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Whether you walk to the top of the pavilion's summit or not, the views of the skyline are pretty sweet.
As you'd expect from a place called Brooklyn Bridge Park, you can get some of the best pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge from here.
Perhaps my favorite place to sit on a bench and contemplate life--which has been a mixed bag for me lately, with the ecstasy of getting married soon and the agony of career uncertainty--was the southern end of Pier 1, where I could watch the boats come and go on New York Harbor and make out Lady Liberty in the distance.
Of course, gluttons for punishment can spend endless hours in the park ignoring all of the above, and gazing at the relentless traffic jams on the BQE.
If you don't want to brave the BQE--and I can't say I blame you on that one--the best way to get to Brooklyn Bridge Park is to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge itself, if you're coming from Manhattan. Descend a stairway on the Brooklyn end of the bridge and walk for about seven minutes down Old Fulton Street to the end. The A, C, F, R, 2, 3, 4 and 5 trains all stop around the Borough Hall area; then it's either a 20 minute or so walk to the park, or a quick ride on the B25 bus (which probably will amount to 20 minutes anyway, once you wait for it). It's well worth the inconvenience.
I wasn't disappointed. Then again, with a view like this, it would have been pretty hard to mess up the new Brooklyn Bridge Park:
After many years of planning, bureaucratic nonsense, and finally construction, Brooklyn Bridge Park became a reality on March 22, 2010. It will eventually encompass six piers along the downtown Brooklyn waterfront, adjacent to America's favorite parking lot, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. This is actually one of the future piers:
At first glance, it wouldn't appear that this would become the type of park you'd want to take your kids to. But by a pretty cool feat of engineering, the first pier to be completed, Pier 1, definitely is:
The combination of pristine green space and old factories in the background make me feel like I'm in Camden Yards in Baltimore...which is a good thing, since I love baseball.
The park has a waterfront playground (I don't photograph playgrounds since it makes me feel like a pedophile) and lots of hipsters (which I usually don't photograph either). The most unique geographical feature of the park is a giant granite pavilion, which allows a tiny bit of an aerial perspective of the city if you don't have the energy to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Whether you walk to the top of the pavilion's summit or not, the views of the skyline are pretty sweet.
As you'd expect from a place called Brooklyn Bridge Park, you can get some of the best pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge from here.
Perhaps my favorite place to sit on a bench and contemplate life--which has been a mixed bag for me lately, with the ecstasy of getting married soon and the agony of career uncertainty--was the southern end of Pier 1, where I could watch the boats come and go on New York Harbor and make out Lady Liberty in the distance.
Of course, gluttons for punishment can spend endless hours in the park ignoring all of the above, and gazing at the relentless traffic jams on the BQE.
If you don't want to brave the BQE--and I can't say I blame you on that one--the best way to get to Brooklyn Bridge Park is to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge itself, if you're coming from Manhattan. Descend a stairway on the Brooklyn end of the bridge and walk for about seven minutes down Old Fulton Street to the end. The A, C, F, R, 2, 3, 4 and 5 trains all stop around the Borough Hall area; then it's either a 20 minute or so walk to the park, or a quick ride on the B25 bus (which probably will amount to 20 minutes anyway, once you wait for it). It's well worth the inconvenience.