A New Yorker’s Guide to the Brooklyn Bridge [2024]

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of New York City’s most iconic landmarks, rivaled only by the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Not only older than both of those landmarks, it’s an engineering marvel that revolutionized how bridges are built and led to the then-independent city of Brooklyn merging with Manhattan to give us modern-day New York City. And it’s probably essentially a supporting character in whatever your favorite movie about the Big Apple is.

So, naturally, you want to get your grubby feet all over it, right?

I’m a New Yorker who’s lived on both sides of the bridge and crossed it by foot, car, or bicycle more times than I can remember. Here’s what you need to know about crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge History

John Augustus Roebling, a German immigrant and engineer, first proposed building a suspension bridge to connect the cities of Brooklyn and New York in 1857. The New York and Brooklyn Bridge, as it was known at first, was the tallest and longest suspension bridge ever built up to that point, and was overengineered specifically to accommodate rail cars, roads, and a promenade for millions of people. John Augustus Roebling was arguably the bridge’s first victim, dying in 1869 from an infection he got after an accident that crushed his foot while he was surveying the site.

His son, Washington, took over heading the project, though bridge almost took his life, too, when he got the bends from working on the underwater foundations and suffered lifelong disabilities from it. Though he was officially still the chief engineer, he had to oversee the project from his bedroom window in Brooklyn Heights.

Washington Roebling’s brilliant wife, Emily Warren Roebling, who taught herself the intricacies of bridge engineering, was the de facto chief engineer, project manager, day-to-day foreman, and diplomatic and political face of the bridge project. For over a decade, she helmed it through to its completion in 1883. Amazingly, the bridge didn’t kill or maim her, and she was given the honor of being the first person to officially cross the bridge by carriage at its opening ceremony, which was attended by President Chester A. Arthur and the mayors of New York and Brooklyn.

Though the bridge was instantly popular and much used, there were still public doubts that the bridge was strong enough to support the millions of people who crossed it every year. To assuage these fears, P.T. Barnum led 21 elephants across the bridge in 1884. That year, the bridge logged 8.5 million people crossing it. The New York City Department of Transportation says that, as of 2018, an average of 116,000 vehicles, 30,000 pedestrians, and 3,000 cyclists travel over the Brooklyn Bridge each day. Even assuming that every vehicle only holds 1 person, that’d be about 55 million people a year.

The first person to jump off the bridge was a man named Robert Odlum. He did so in 1885 in an attempt to both gain fame and prove that life nets — those things people in burning buildings were supposed to jump onto — were safe. He died, and life nets were eventually phased out of firefighting because they were not safe.

Brooklyn Bridge Facts

The Brooklyn Bridge is about 6,000 feet long, depending on what you count as its beginning and end and also the weather (it can shrink or grow by over a foot in cold or hot temperatures). It rises about 130 feet above the East River (again, depending on the load and the tides) and can hold up to 18,700 tons.

Each of the Gothic Revival towers is 278 tall and supports 4 main cables, each 15.75 inches in diameter and containing 5,282 steel wires. The tower on the Brooklyn side descends 48.5 feet to rest on bedrock. The Manhattan tower plunges 78.5 feet below water and sits on sand, which Washington Roebling decided was firm enough to support the bridge.

Though it’s not possible to get statistics on how many people try to jump off it every year, the Brooklyn Bridge is known as a so-called “suicide bridge.”

“Depressed people will drive 20 miles, bypassing the Manhattan and the Williamsburg, just to get to the Brooklyn Bridge,” Gary Gorman, a former member of the Emergency Services Unit of the New York Police Department, told the New York Times in 2003.

Over the years, the bridge has also been the target of performance artists, terrorist threats, and likely the majority of establishing shots preceding scenes set in New York City in movies and TV.

Hot Tip:

Need ideas on how to get to New York City on points and miles? We’ve got a story for that!

Getting to the Brooklyn Bridge

From Manhattan, the pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge is right across Centre Street from city hall and next to One Police Plaza, the New York Police Department’s main headquarters.

The nearest subway station to the Manhattan entrance is Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall, which serves the 4, 5, and 6 lines.

The stairway entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn is easy to miss since it’s under a dark overpass. It’s under the span at Washington and Prospect streets and isn’t especially well-marked — if you see an understated “Welcome to Brooklyn” sign, the stairs are right around the corner but still under the bridge.

The nearest subway stops to the Dumbo stairway entrance are High Street (the A and C trains) or York Street (the F train).

You can also walk onto the Brooklyn Bridge from Downtown Brooklyn by following Adams Street — the Brooklyn Bridge promenade is essentially the median. The easiest and safest place to get onto the promenade is Adams and Tillary streets. The Adams Street entrance is a gradual ramp, not stairs, so it’s easier for people with mobility issues but also a much longer way to get on or off the bridge.

Signage telling you whether you’re going the right way is nonexistent here, and you can’t see the Brooklyn Bridge’s towers at all from this vantage point. You may, however, be able to see the Manhattan Bridge’s towers (the blue ones) from here, so at least you’ll know you’re headed toward the river.

The nearest subway stations to the Adams and Tillary promenade entrance are High Street (A, and C trains) and Clark Street (the 2 and 3 trains).

Walking Across the Brooklyn Bridge

On a nice day, walking across the bridge is easily the best way to experience it. It could always be a beautiful walk, but since 2021, when bicyclists were given their own dedicated passageway, and again in January 2024, when the city banned vendors from the bridge, it’s become a real pleasure to make it across the East River this way. It’s something any able person, whether a visitor or a local, should do at least once in their lifetimes.

Here are the essentials to know about walking across the bridge:

• The bridge is open 24 hours a day. It’s completely free to cross the Brooklyn Bridge in either direction. You should, of course, exercise caution and use common sense at all times but especially late at night or when there are fewer people around. There are usually police stationed around the very beginning of the Manhattan-side entrance, but don’t expect to see officers patrolling the bridge.
• Not accounting for stops to rest or take photos, it takes the average person about 30 minutes to walk across the bridge in a single direction.
• You must ride your bike on the separate bike path of the Brooklyn Bridge (see that section below). You can, however, walk your bike across the bridge on the pedestrian path.
• The pedestrian walkway is mostly wooden planks except at the tower platforms, where it’s concrete.
• There are no public toilets on the Brooklyn Bridge, so go before you go.
• Do not climb onto the support structures, beams, or wires of the promenade (or any other part of the bridge, for that matter), even for that killer selfie. If you fall off the beams running along the sides of the walkway, you will likely fall directly into traffic and be hit by a car and seriously hurt or killed.

Once you’re on the bridge, you’ll likely be walking along with thousands of people doing the same in either direction (though most tourists seem to go from Manhattan to Brooklyn). There’ll be a lot of people stopping suddenly to take selfies. On our last trip over, there were at least 3 photoshoots going on. Be patient, watch where you’re walking, and don’t block the way for other people if you do the same.

Back in the day, both pedestrians and cyclists had to share this single promenade all the way across. It was a mess.

The tower platforms to the bridge are large, concrete squares where you can rest in the shade of the towers or just hang out a bit and take in the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines. There are metal plaques that ring these observatories and detail a little of the history and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. These plaques are identical on both the Manhattan and Brooklyn tower platforms — you’re not missing out on anything if you read the plaques on one tower but not the other.

Skylines continuously change, of course, but you’ll get a good look at both Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s from many points along the bridge, as well as glimpses of East River traffic, possibly including 1 or 2 of the city’s historic sail vessels. On a clear day, you should have good views of One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building. You may be able to glimpse the Statue of Liberty in the distance to the south, but don’t expect to be wowed.

Hot Tip:

Want to see the Statue of Liberty up close and for free? Hop on the Staten Island Ferry.

Biking Across the Brooklyn Bridge

In 2021, the city finally separated the bike lane from the pedestrian promenade and gave cyclists their own path across the bridge in both directions. This was great because the original way it worked was dangerous and annoying for walkers, annoying and dangerous for cyclists (especially those 90-degree turns at the tower platforms), and made what should have been scenic trips for both into hellish thrill rides that left you hating all New Yorkers, all tourists, all cyclists, all pedestrians, and all humanity in general.

But the bicycle path they replaced the promenade cycling with is not great. It’s a smidge too narrow (8 feet wide for both lanes, coming and going), claustrophobic, and at points dark and choking with fumes. It runs alongside the roadways, separated from the cars by concrete barriers topped by chain-link fencing. It’s still a way better ride than pedaling forward through a morass of situationally clueless tourists blithely ignoring the old bike-lane signs and unapologetically backing into your immediate trajectory, but this is a bike path for commuters, not for visitors wanting a magical New York experience.

If you ride across the bridge, keep your wits about you, don’t take a bulky cargo bike, stay in your lane so you don’t clip anyone, and do not stop for selfies unless you want to get an earful from angry New York cyclists.

You can find the bicycle entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge right next to the pedestrian entrance on the Manhattan side and right next to the Tillary and Adams entrance on the Brooklyn side.

Driving Across the Brooklyn Bridge

Cars are probably the worst way to get across the Brooklyn Bridge if you want to enjoy it, as you miss much of the views, and even the towers are partially obscured by the endless rows of stay cables. Plus, you spend most of your time trying to concentrate on navigating the often chaotic traffic and getting across the East River in 1 piece or without blowing your top at the guy in the BMW convertible who just cut you off.

You cannot stop or pull over anywhere on the bridge to get out and stretch your legs, take panoramic shots, or relieve yourself. It’s both dangerous and illegal.

In Manhattan, from FDR Drive, you drive onto the Brooklyn Bridge by car by taking exit 2. If you’re taking local roads, you must make the right turn going north on Park Row near city hall or the left turn going south on Centre Street near One Police Plaza before it turns into Park Row. In this direction, you can take the offramp that takes you to Brooklyn Heights or stay left and end up in Downtown Brooklyn at Adams and Tillary streets.

From Brooklyn on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway going eastbound, you can take exit 28B to the Brooklyn Bridge. Westbound, it’s exit 28, marked “Cadman Plaza West – Brooklyn Bridge.” Or you can use local roads to drive onto the Brooklyn Bridge from Adams and Tillary streets via the onramp that starts at Sands and Pearl streets.

Trucks are not allowed on the Brooklyn Bridge, and there is a vehicular weight limit of 6,000 pounds and a height limit of 11 feet. Trucks make this mistake all the time and end up having to back up all the way down single-lane ramps, creating huge traffic jams and earning the ire of 2 boroughs’ worth of New Yorkers. Don’t be that guy.

Things To Do Near the Brooklyn Bridge

If you cross over the Brooklyn Bridge going east, you’ll end up in either Dumbo or Downtown Brooklyn. The latter is one of New York City’s bigger commercial districts and the hub of its legal and administrative bureaucracy, but the neighborhood is geared more toward people who live in the city and are looking to buy a pack of running socks or serve jury duty. The most touristy thing you could do might be to go to Junior’s Cheesecake, though, for upscale cuisine, you should instead go to Gage & Tollner.

More tourists head to Dumbo, where they can take that now-cliched photo of the Manhattan Bridge (not the Brooklyn Bridge).

Dumbo’s also home to Brooklyn Bridge Park, which has a beautiful carousel, Pier 1, Fulton Ferry Landing, and 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge. The Empire Stores food hall and market are right here, too.

If you make the reverse walk from Brooklyn west to Manhattan, the bridge can take you to Lower Manhattan and almost feeds you right into City Hall Park, from where you can walk south to Wall Street, southwest to the World Trade Center, west to Tribeca, or north to the rest of Manhattan. You can also exit to Chinatown (look for the sign and stairs down as you’re near the end of your descent westward).

Final Thoughts

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most awe-inspiring landmarks of New York City and deserves every ounce of its fame. On your next trip to the Big Apple, you’d be remiss not to take advantage of the fact that one of the most quintessential and wonderful New York experiences is totally free — and if you already live here, you have no excuses to set aside 30 minutes for a bridge walk on a nice day.