Hello Everyone!

Today I want to talk you about one adventure that I made some months ago. I hope this could be a good suggestion for all of you who plan to visit New York and who are looking for something less common. When someone visits new York for the first time, there are some obligated steps like Empire state Building Observation Deck, the Statue of Liberty, a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge… I suggest to you to visit all these places but, if you have time I suggest some little tricks for make your visit impressive!

The first trick is to go also on the Top Of The Rock, the observation deck of Rockefeller Center. The reason is very easy, from the Top of the Rock you could have an awesome view (as you can from the Empire State Building) which includes the Empire State Building. Especially if you go to the Top of the Rock during night hours you can see the city’s lights and also the lights of the Empire State. The first time I visited New York a friend of mine who live in the city told me that: if you want the best view of the Empire State Building, you need to look at this from the Top of the Rock. For that reason I decided to get in both the buildings: during the day I visited the Empire State Building and during night hour  on Top of The Rock. I’m really proud of that decision!

Here some pics from the 102nd floor of Empire State Building. Please consider that the city you can see in the pictures is a slightly different from the city you can see now, the pictures were taken in 2011 and the skyline was a little different. As you can see there wasn’t yet One World Trade Center, because it was still under construction!

Here some pics by night from the Top of the Rock observation deck:

The second trick is about the Brooklyn Bridge. Of course you should take a walk on it, but in my opinion you should also have a walk on the Manhattan bridge (it is located at east of the Brooklyn Bridge). The reason is really similar to the previous one: from the Manhattan Bridge you could enjoy the best view of the Brooklyn Bridge. I used to walk on the Brooklyn Bridge, I love it, but each time I was a little disappointed because I never could take a good shot of it with a good sunset on the background. So i started to looking for the best spot for a sunset behind the Brooklyn Bridge and I figured out that the best place for see it is the Manhattan Bridge!

Manhattan Bridge

The bridge cross the East River from Lower Manhattan (Canal Street) to Brooklyn (Flatbush Avenue). It was build after the Brooklyn Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge, and it was finished in 1912 (if you are interested in an adventure on the East River Ferry boat take a look of my post about it: East River Trip). The Bridge is almost 2 Km long (the Brooklyn Bridge is 1.8 Km long) and it appears really different from the most famous Bridge.

Usually people cross the Manhattan Bridge from Manhattan (in the middle of China Town) to Brooklyn (DUMBO that means Down Under the Manhattan Bridge). I decided to do the opposite! I walked from Brooklyn to Manhattan because I wanted to see the sunset behind the Brooklyn Bridge and also ChinaTown completely enlightened.

The first things I noticed when I was on the bridge are that it is not really touristic and for this reason it is less looked after compared to the Brooklyn bridge. At the beginning I was a little disappointed from 2 major things: the noise of the subway really close to the pedestrian pathway and the feces.

Actually I didn’t expect meshes! Luckily I decided to go ahead and I was extremely surprised from the unexpected beauty of the Bridge itself and from the magnificence of the view that I enjoyed from there. During the way I found a lot of holes in the mesh. Actually I thought that due to the particular position, indeed they are strategically located in the best spot for the picture, those holes were made from photographers themselves!

Anyway, I experienced an amazing view that day (it was almost November)  and I was really lucky because the sunset was really awesome and it made interesting lights and shadows on the river and also on the Brooklyn bridge itself. At last but not least behind the sunset I could figure out the silhouette of Lady Liberty and it made all the view merely perfect!

I put some of my pics and little movies in the following video. The Images cannot explain perfectly the beauty of that view, but they explain way better than words! I hope you like it!

As I said before, this trip was in winter time. I plan to repeat the same adventure in summer time for see different shades of the sunset.

FYI (For Your Information)

The Manhattan Bridge pedestrian path starts in canal street in the middle of China Town and you can fast arrive there with the lines 6 J Z and R of subway (R line is a little far than the others).

From Brooklyn side it is well connected with subway lines 2 3 4 5 A C F R.

My personal suggestion, the same I give to all my friends who visit the Big Apple, is to add this walking to a complete visit of China Town and Little Italy (unfortunately only Mulberry Street is real Italian, the other part were consolidated in China Town), in this way you can minimize the transfers and maximize your time! This one is a very important rule if you plan to visit New York: don’t waste your time and make a plan! There are a lot of things to see and a bunch of things to do and so few time for do all!

I guess that these little tricks should be useful for those of you who plan to visit New York. I hope to show a different part of New York and I hope you alla enjoy this post and my travel notes!

Let me know in the comments box below what do you think about this post and also if you have some place that you wanna show through my post of New York City!

Stay Tuned!

Tricks in this post:
1. Some suggestions for a complete visit of Manhattan;
2. Top of the Rock for enjoying the best view of the Empire State Building;
3. Manhattan Bridge for see a an hidden side of the Brooklyn Bridge;
4. Important tips for plan a visit of New York.