Now starring in The Dark Knight Rises: The Queensboro Bridge

Chrysler Building & Queensboro/59th Street Bridge

I hadn't been to the top of the Empire State Building since I was a kid, and my daughter had never been, so Wednesday we made the trip. Even though the the air was hazy with humidity, it was a great view and I got some wonderful pictures of the lower Manhattan bridges before the thunderstorms hit.

Closest to us was the Ed Koch Queensboro/59th Street Bridge, looking from this height like a kid's popsicle stick bridge.

This morning I went to see the new Batman movie, the Dark Knight Rises, in which many of the bridges of Manhattan play a pivotal role -- and the Queensboro Bridge, most of all. I'm not going to spoil the movie, but if you've been a fan of Manhattan's bridges, you'll probably enjoy the focus on them in the movie.

Except -- one tiny, tiny thing. They moved the bridge. They moved the bridge. In actual real Manhattan, the bridge is midtown, connecting the island with Queens. In the movie's climactic scene, the bridge has apparently replaced the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, Staten Island has disappeared entirely, and the Marine Parkway Bridge now connects to Manhattan. Or something. And is now reddish instead of gray.

When I got home I checked a NYC map just to be sure I wasn't crazy, but I was right. They moved the bridge.

Didn't they think anyone would notice?

Found a story with some good additional links about the filming on the Queensboro Bridge last autumn.

The Last Voyage of the Enterprise (and the Gil Hodges/Marine Parkway Bridge, Brooklyn-Rockaway, NY)

The Enterprise passes beneath the raised Gil Hodges Bridge

I really don't like driving in New York City. I'd already been the day before to test drive a new car in New Jersey, and it would take a lot to get me to go to NYC twice in the same weekend.

A space shuttle being floated past one of the most beautiful bridges in a city known for its beautiful bridges? Yah, I guess that would do it.

A crowd gathered at Bennett Field to watch the shuttle sail by

The Enterprise never flew in space. It was the prototype space shuttle, and was dropped from great heights to study its aerodynamics and tune the shape for the production shuttles that followed. A letter writing campaign convinced NASA to name the shuttle for the famous starship, and most of the original cast members made it to the space plane's dedication.

The shuttle with the 500mm lens

I'd plotted out just exactly where I was going to park and where I was going to watch the shuttle -- park at the ranger station near the airfield, watch the shuttle from the Gil Hodges Bridge. I figured that would give me a nice perspective, and I could get the sea level view when it passed the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge a couple hours later.

Well, traffic was awful. I was far from the only person to show up; the place was as crowded as a fireworks show, bemusing the fishermen who had set up poles on the beach, expecting to have the place to themselves. Not on shuttle season. Even the park rangers came to watch. Police and TV helicopters buzzed the shuttle on its slow journey into the bay.

Lots of people did watch from the bridge, but I elected to just sit on the beach and read a book, protected from the sun by an umbrella, until the shuttle showed. It was just a dot far in the distance, but I could see it clearly with the 500mm lens. I'd left my tripod in my car when it went into the shop. I had to use my Gorillapod mini-tripod grabbing onto my knee. Scrunched up on the beach, squinting into the camera on my knee, I took picture after picture as the shuttle approached.

Gil Hodges/Marine Parkway Bridge (sans shuttle)

The Gil Hodges Bridge, named for a famous baseball player with the Brooklyn Dodgers, connects Brooklyn with the Rockaways, a peninsula that juts out into the ocean. Brooklyn and Queens comprise the western tip of Long Island, which had me half wondering if it would be a good idea to just head through both boroughs to the Long Island Expressway and take the ferry across the sound to Bridgeport or New Haven. Rather than parking on the Van Wyck Expressway, which is what I ended up doing anyway.

When you leave Brooklyn, the sign says, "Fuggedaboudit!". Followed by a more sedate "Welcome to Queens", the more eastern borough clearly embarrassed by her brash husband (Brooklyn is in Kings County, Queens is in Queens County. Kings, Queens -- get it? Fuggedaboudit!).

If you'd like to visit the bridge, dammit, bring a bicycle. There were hundreds! The Flatbush bus stops right off the bridge, or you can park in the ranger's station down Aviation Road just before the bridge. I imagine, when there's no shuttles floating past, there's plenty of parking there. I didn't cross the bridge into Rockaway because it cost money and I didn't want to pay. Frickin' Bronx-Whitestone Bridge cost me $6.50 each way.

George Washington Bridge, Manhattan, NY - Fort Lee, NJ

George Washington Bridge from Fort Tryon Park

I had business in New Jersey this morning. I got lost, as usual, and didn't approach the George Washington Bridge the way I normally do -- where before I know it, I'm on the bridge, staring in wonder at the towering, um, towers and the massive cables. Instead, I'd gotten lost in Yonkers and ended up crossing the Henry Hudson Bridge (sorry, no pictures) into Manhattan and taking Route 9A down along the Hudson River and seeing, for the first time, the bridge from the side.

This picture, I took on the way back, when the sun was hidden by clouds. If there'd been a place to pull off the highway and take a shot of the bridge illuminated by the morning sun, just broken through storm clouds, I absolutely would have.

This bridge makes over a million dollars for the city of New York, every single day. They got my $12. And $8 for crossing the Henry Hudson Bridge twice. It's like they don't want you to come into Manhattan.

I paid my $12. I was going to look around. I headed down Broadway (yes, the Broadway) to 187th, took a left and a right, dodged some double parked cars and came to Fort Tryon Park. This beautiful riverside park is home to the flower & heather gardens, miles of bike and pedestrian walkways, open areas everywhere... and the Cloisters.

Cloisters @ Fort Tryon Park

I found lots of friends there; a family of woodchucks was showing off for the tourists, and birds were everywhere. I got this little guy looking very happy with himself about something.

Sparrow resting

He was one of a group, but I was using the 500mm lens and it was impossible to keep more than one in focus with the super shallow depth of field. They looked awful. Except this one.

George Washington Bridge from Fort Tryon Park

There is plenty of parking in Fort Tryon Park; park near the entrance to explore the Washington Heights/Inwood sections of Manhattan, park further down to walk among the gardens and forests, or keep going to the Cloisters and walk the grounds or take a tour through the museum.

If you want to cross the bridge without having to take your car, grab your bicycle or your walking shoes and head over, though you might want to start from the New Jersey side. Manhattan traffic is terrible. The pedestrian/bicycle walkway was filled with people on two wheels or two feet. It truly is an experience.

Pelham Bay/Shore Road Bridge, Bronx, NY

Pelham Bay Bridge

It's still catch-up week here at Life, On a Bridged. This weekend is going to be a post about three beautiful bridges in the Portsmouth, NH area, and next week is going to be Covered Bridge Week. (Preview: we cover the most haunted bridge in the Berkshires!)

But for now, we're in the Bronx, at the Pelham Bay/Shore Road Bridge.

Usually when I visit the Bronx, I go by train. It's convenient, comfortable and even fun. Once in the city, the subway and buses bring me anywhere I need to go. This is how things were for years, until I got a car. While following the Merritt Parkway into New York, I came for the first time to NYC in a car. And that made all the difference. Unlike traveling in a train, in a car I could get lost. And while lost, I could find things.

I'd hoped to get a NYC bridge while I was in the area before heading back home to Connecticut (and I did, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge). On the way to that bridge, I passed over this bridge. I immediately turned around, parked at the Bronx Equestrian Center, and looked for someplace with a good view of the bridge.

I didn't have to go far; there is a trail off of City Island Road (which has some pretty cool bike paths) which goes right up to the mouth of the Hutchinson River, over which the bridge runs.

The bridge is one of the busiest drawbridges in the city, second only to the Hamilton Avenue Bridge in Brooklyn. (Reading that report, btw, I bet I could spend a year, easy, just photographing New York City's historic bridges). It was completed in 1909, replacing a wooden bridge that crossed the river nearby, and celebrated its centennial a couple years back.

It's not a long bridge, but you can walk over it and enjoy both halves of the Pelham Bay Park (and landfill!). Say what you like about NYC, they have amazing parks. This trip I visited the Pelham Bay Park and the Ferry Point Park and was impressed by them both.

Whitestone Bridge, Bronx-Queens, NY

Bronx-Whitestone Bridge

It's a big bridge to be found by accident, but that's how I came by it. I was headed down the Merritt Parkway, hoping to get half decent car pictures of those bridges (I did, some of them). I'd gotten a bonus bridge at the Sikorsky factory. Since the Merritt Parkway leaves off in New York, I wondered if I could get a quick borough bridge  Maybe the Brooklyn Bridge. That would be a nice one.

I blindly followed Google Maps and saw I was about to come to the Whitestone Bridge -- and it had a toll. It also had a park right next to it... and it suddenly became the NYC bridge of the day (followed soon after by the Pelham Bridge, but that's a topic for another, shorter post).

Whitestone Bridge

The Whitestone Bridge crosses the East River, connecting the borough of the Bronx with the borough of Queens. Construction was managed by famous civil engineer Robert Moses, who, in his typical ruthless efficiency, tore down as many Queens homes as necessary to anchor the bridge. He and designer Othmarr Ammann would later collaborate on the nearby Throgs Neck Bridge, which I did not visit this trip.

The Bronx side of the bridge rises from Ferry Point Park. Bronx has many really nice parks; Ferry Point Park, though, has a wonderful view of Manhattan and is incredibly accessible.

Ferry Point Park

There is no pedestrian or bicycle access to the bridge. There is ample parking at Ferry Point Park, with easy access from route I-678. As mentioned before, you'll pay handsomely to take a jaunt to Queens on the bridge -- and you'll pay on the way back as well. At least the George Washington Bridge has the decency to charge only one way.

The bridge's proximity to the park make it a fantastic backdrop to weekend family enjoyment.

Bronx end of the Whitestone Bridge

I'm so, so very happy spring has come. Finally there's some life in these pictures.