Brooklyn Bridge walkway

The elevated promenade down the spine of the Brooklyn Bridge was part of John and Washington Roebling's 1883 design from the start — a boardwalk set above the traffic so that crossing the East River could also be a stroll. A hundred and forty years on, it remains the finest mile-long walk in the city: granite towers and their Gothic arches rising ahead, the harp of steel cables sweeping past, harbor and skyline on both sides.

Since 2021 cyclists have their own lane on the roadway below, which returned the wooden boards to walkers. The engineering story underfoot is as good as the view — the bridge was the longest span on earth when it opened, built through caisson disease and the paralysis of its chief engineer, whose wife Emily Roebling carried the project to completion and crossed first.

Walk it from Brooklyn toward Manhattan: the skyline grows the whole way, and the DUMBO stairs drop you at the foot of everything else in this neighborhood when you return.