Brooklyn Bridge Commuter – New York

Summer in the City

Summer seems to have come and gone in the blink of an eye, and somehow the last few weeks have been packed with travel, weddings, and more photographs than I know what to do with.

This is the first post from our trip to New York in mid-August. I have plenty of photographs to work through, but I wanted to start with this image taken on the Brooklyn Bridge.

It was already hot and brilliantly sunny when we arrived, despite it being only around 9am. On our last few visits to New York, the bridge had been undergoing something of a facelift, so it was great to see the work finally completed and the pedestrian walkway fully reopened.

The walkway is divided between pedestrians and cyclists, and I was amazed by just how many people cycle across the bridge. In the thirty minutes or so that we were there, I must have seen at least a hundred cyclists. And they certainly don’t slow down for anyone who accidentally strays into the cycle lane!

I love almost everything about the Brooklyn Bridge: the soaring brick arches, the intricate suspension cables, the muted colours, the incredible scale, and, of course, the history that surrounds it. There is something about standing on the bridge that makes you appreciate just how remarkable it is.

We walked from Manhattan across to Brooklyn, but for me, the best view comes when you walk in the opposite direction, with the imposing skyline of Lower Manhattan rising ahead of you. We returned one evening to the little park nestled between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, too, but I’ll save those images for another post.

For this particular shot, I loved the symmetry created by the low viewpoint, and then, almost perfectly on cue, a cyclist came through the frame at just the right moment.

Sometimes the timing really does make the photograph. 🙂