The Brooklyn Bridge

On my first birthday in New York City, two weeks ago, I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (which opened to traffic in 1883 after 13 years of construction). I'm not of the knee-jerk "I like old things just because they're old" school, but in general it does seem that things of the past were constructed with much more care and aesthetic consideration. This bridge, for instance, is just gorgeous to look at, both close up and from a distance.










The last picture wasn't taken by me, but is of New Yorkers walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in August 2003, after a massive power-outage had shut down the subways. I had just been flown in to NYC for a job interview in June that summer. I didn't get the job, but that first glimpse of New York City gave me a taste of the city and a real sense that I wanted to be there. When the blackout happened a couple of months later, there was a photo of people walking home on the Brooklyn Bridge on the front page of the NY Times (which gave me chills), which I cut out and taped up above my desk at work, with my notation: "I should have been there." It took me nearly 4 years since my first visit, but...here I am, as I should be!