I think there are about four major bridges that connects Manhattan to its neighboring boroughs. The most famous of the bridges is undoubtedly the Brooklyn Bridge. Believe it or not. when it was built 120 years ago, it held many world records.

At over 1 mile long, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world and was also the bridge ever built with steel wire. The most common measure of suspension bridges is the length of the main span. The main span of the Brooklyn Bridge is just 500m … that is just a quarter of the main span of the longest suspension bridge today.

Another record that the Manhattan Bridge held then was that it was the tallest structure in the US.

Today, the Brooklyn Bridge is a national historic landmark. I decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in the late afternoon so that I could get across to Brooklyn just before sunset. I had wanted to take shots of this famous bridge from Brooklyn with the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan as its backdrop.

I did not realize how popular the Brooklyn Bridge was. There were a lot of people, and a lot of tourists too, on the bridge. It was here that I took a lot of time taking pictures with my newly acquired lens.

The Brooklyn Bridge is basically a six lane bridge with an elevated center walkway for pedestrian and cyclists.

It was really bright that afternoon and the lighting was perfect. I am so happy with the shot below not so much because of the composition or anything like that … it was a hohum shot. I like it because I managed to take this handheld, with a 280mm lens and standing on a vibrating bridge (caused by the traffic below). The lens was fast enough to be able to freeze this shot.

Another famous bridge parallel to the Brooklyn Bridge is the Manhattan Bridge.

The bridge does look small. Maybe it’s because of the backdrop of the tall buildings in Lower Manhattan. But trust me, it was a long, long tiring walk. I got over to the Brooklyn side of the bridge and setup the tripod at this little park which to many photographers know its the best angle to take the shot of the bridge. When I got there, there were already five other photographers with kick-ass equipments there with their tripods.

I stayed there for 45 minutes watching the sun set. I was a bit disappointed that the bridge was not lighted. I had hoped that they at least light up the bridge towers.

I guess I could have taken the subway back to Manhattan but I decided to walk back the same way.