First 100 Days
The Brooklyn Bridge is a good starter bridge: the on-ramp is long, the road is the same texture as the street, and other than the exit ramps, it’s mostly smooth. It’s hard to explain how cinematic a ride it is into Manhattan, especially on a sunny morning, when you can’t help but feel blessed to be living this life.
You’re surrounded by these steel cables that make it feel like a ship and you’re sailing across the East River, an explorer discovering the center of the universe for the very first time. They give this illusion of enclosure and safety until suddenly at the center you start the descent into Manhattan and you feel the wind hit you on all sides. That’s when you remember this can be dangerous.
The Manhattan Bridge is intermediate level. The ramp on the Brooklyn side is a 3 lane highway that’s filled with wide bumps and indentations that you keep meaning to e-mail Mamdani about. A third of the way through the surface changes to these weird, slippery, compressed blocks that change the traction on your wheels and you have to remind yourself not to tighten your hands, to stay loose.
In the mornings you take the lower deck to the Canal Street exit (you can’t go fast enough to take the FDR) and the cars speed past you. There’s a weird dark stretch towards the end when the upper deck crosses above and if the subway trains on your sides hit at the same time you are momentarily disoriented in the dark and overwhelmed by the noise until you get dumped out under that funny Parisian arch on the Chinatown side.
It’s on the commute home that the Manhattan bridge feels like a reward. You take the upper deck and the sun sets on your right, over the Brooklyn Bridge and the towers in downtown Manhattan. You wish you could take a photo. The light hits the glass on the empty office buildings in Dumbo and everything glows pink and orange and it’s not like sailing at all-- it’s like you’re landing a plane.
The Williamsburg Bridge is the next level. The cars go fast, the incline is steep, the outer lanes feel exposed and you can’t easily glance over to enjoy the view. And Honestly, it feels easier to just avoid. But maybe it just needs more time.
Anyway. I’ve been working a lot and I have a list of hairy problems I’m trying to solve and also I’m trying to (are you ready for it) enjoy the ride.
