7.22.2009

The "M" in the "BMW" Sequence of Bridges: Manhattan Bridge
































Finally was able to bring my camera one time I walked back from Brooklyn to Manhattan one hot afternoon, and I was able to exhaust myself taking pictures on what caught my fancy (plus who happened to provide me momentary company during that walk) as I trekked (probably took me around 20 minutes to complete) all the way to my pied-a-terre on East Broadway, Chinatown. I'm sure "Manhattan Bridge" was the one referred to by a friend who told me one time that he crossed one very late evening on his way home to Brooklyn, as he had no subway fare left after a drinking binge in Manhattan. Well, he said, he got very scared, as he was all alone that night, and was thankful there were a few delivery guys rushing away from him on their bikes, purportedly from Chinatown where food places abound and are always ready to deliver food to hungry stomachs even during wee hours.

What did I see on my walk? Check the pictures, and you'd feast your eyes on fantastic views, including a beach (on the East River, on Brooklyn side), Dumbo buildings, an assembled slide in a children's playground, some trees providing shades reminding me of home, a shared oasis of a garden on top of an apartment building, miles of graffiti, century old buildings still proudly standing, Brooklyn bridge from a distance, subway trains (I love looking at them as they pass by the rail going towards their scheduled destinations for waiting passengers somewhere in the boroughs), joggers, walking enthusiasts like myself, and fine architectural details everywhere. Manhattan Bridge looks serious and strong to me, primarily because of the materials I see on the surface that all added up during its completion close to a hundred years ago (built from 1901 to 1910). It could be the most ungodly hour to be walking on this bridge, when I found myself deciding I need to take a walk just to get my daily exercise requirement. Compared with Brooklyn Bridge, on which I meditated on in an article before, this walk was even more uneventful. What would I make of it? I wonder if there are as many people who walk on this Bridge that will come close to the numbers of those walking daily on Brooklyn Bridge. Well, I maybe biased, but the walk on Brooklyn Bridge provides more inner romantic delight than here (perhaps it's the solid and not-so-solid rock materials used that make me think this way, and it's friendlier to all people who love to stroll), as Brooklyn Bridge reminds me of a floating and extended huge stone sculpture (worth keeping in the Metropolitan Museum LOL), whereas Manhattan Bridge brings me memories of some scenes I saw in Batman movies (i.e. Gotham).

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