The timing is the whole route
You can walk the Brooklyn Bridge whenever you like, but the hour around sunset is a different experience entirely. We adjust the departure daily to the actual sunset time, meeting about ninety minutes beforehand.
There is a reason for that gap. You need time to get up onto the bridge, pass through the first tower, and be standing mid-span for the twenty minutes when the light is best. Walk too fast and you arrive early; too slow and you have missed it.
What the bridge is actually like
The walkway is shared, half for pedestrians and half for cyclists, and the cyclists move quickly. We keep reminding the group which side to stay on — it is the single most common mistake we see every evening.
- Evening is the busiest time; expect the deck to be crowded.
- It is windy up there. Bring a light layer even in summer.
- The timber boards have gaps in them. Heels are a bad idea.
- There are no restrooms mid-span, so take care of that before going up.
Finishing in DUMBO
The walk ends in DUMBO on the Brooklyn side. There are good restaurants and an excellent ice cream shop here, and plenty of people stay on for dinner. To get back to Manhattan the subway is a few minutes away, or you can take the ferry — the night view from the water is far better.
For the photograph
If you want the famous shot of Washington Street framing the Manhattan Bridge, we take you to the exact spot before the tour ends and tell you what time of day has the fewest people in it.
