Last weekend, my wife and I set out on the first day of our “Things to Do In NYC” article adventure, and we decided to begin with a Brooklyn Bridge Bike Tour. This tour, included as part of the New York Pass, is offered for beginners and experts alike.
NYC bike tours are one of the many ways to see the city, and they allow participants to experience New York up close and personal. On a bike, one can travel virtually anywhere someone can travel by foot, and do so far more quickly through the city’s massive bike lane network. Because of its layout and wide streets, NYC was perfect for the addition of bike lanes back in the day, and the city has done a wonderful job establishing these for the city’s residents and guests. The main downside is the tour requires a little physical exertion, albeit we were not riding in the Tour De France. Most NYC bike tours are designed for beginners.
The Brooklyn Bridge Bike Tour
We started our NYC bike tour in Battery Park and traveled passed the Jewish History Museum. This building was particularly pleasing, a modern integration of art, landscaping and architectural design. Our tour guide, Eddie, was a book of facts on this and every place of interest on the tour and he gave us far more information and snippets of data than we could ever remember. We then headed north up the Hudson River on a super cool, “you can only see it by bike or by foot,” bike path. We visited the only point in the city where we could see a perfect mosaic reflection of the top of the new and beautiful One World Trade Center, framed in the reflection of the silver windows of Four World Trade. This was an awesome happenstance of artistic design and architecture, and we were shown a ground position that only a trained tour guide would know how to spot. (I just happen to take a picture of it, shown in the photo collage above).
Then we headed north to see where Captain “Sully” Sullivan miraculously crash landed US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River, before cutting across toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Eddie gave us great insider accounts of the aftermath of that flight, including how it was tied up like a boat for all to see on a sea wall in lower Manhattan for days, until someone could figure out how to remove it from the water.
We then moved west passed City Hall, pausing briefly for nuggets of insider history of intrigue and corruption, eventually making our way onto the wooden Brooklyn Bridge bike path. The Brooklyn Bridge, we discovered, was the largest suspension bridge of its day and still stands as one of the tallest and longest made of stone. Our group spent about 45 minutes on the bridge, biking, taking pictures, and we learning facts about its rich and amazing history that would be nearly impossible to find elsewhere.
We came off the bridge into Brooklyn Heights, where we toured it’s upscale brownstone population and viewed the residences of several well known actors and entertainers who “could do more with their money” in Brooklyn than in Manhattan – the average brownstone costs a mere $26 million on that side of the bridge! We biked past One Pierpont Plaza at the corner of Tillary and Clinton Street, campaign headquarters for 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton: coincidence, we think not!
Our bike tour then proceeded down to the water where we entered Brooklyn Bridge Park. There we stopped for a number of photo opportunities and watched a soccer game held on a pier constructed to hold several soccer fields – uber cool!
We continued to the north side of the park where we saw Jane’s Carousel; a ride built and installed in Idora Park of Youngstown, Ohio in 1922. The 48 horses took 20 years to restore inside the artist’s studio of Jane Walentas, located in DUMBO Brooklyn (for those who of you not in the know, like us, (thank you GOOGLE), DUMBO stands for Down Underneath Manhattan Bridge Overpass). The ride reopened on September 1, 2011, surrounded by a $9m jewelry-box-like glass encasement. Finally, we stopped for excellent ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, before heading back into Brooklyn Heights.
The next stop was one of the most picturesque architectural accidents in NYC. This was at the corner of Washington and Water Street, and it is there you have a perfect view of the Empire State Building, framed by the two east towers of the Manhattan Bridge, which are in turned framed by two nearly identical red brick loft buildings (shown above).
Next, we made our way on to the Manhattan Bridge itself, crossing on the right hand side bike lane back into Manhattan. While on the bridge our bike tour saw a rare occurrence, gridlock on the East River. As it turned out, Marine One was landing at the South Street Seaport, so all traffic into the area was halted by the US Coast Guard while the President of the United States came, and later went. You probably won’t get to see that on your Brooklyn Bridge bike tour 🙂 !
We came off the bridge, back into Manhattan, landing in Chinatown, and heading back down toward the south tip of the island. We crossed back under the Brooklyn Bridge, passing the Fulton Fish Market along the way.
We ended back where we started, to the right of the Governors Island Ferry in a kiosk with a dozen other well maintain mountain bikes.
Later, my wife and I wandered over to Stone Street where we ate an early dinner at a nice restaurant named Smorgas Chef.
This was a fantastic weekend activity and we recommend it for everyone: singles, couples and families.
