Brooklyn Bridge

After our 4th of July day off, I (Charlie) had the next two days off of work.  I took one of the days to go do something we'd talked about doing, but never ended up getting around to - walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I'm on a "diet / exercise" routine, so I figured I could go down to the city, walk all over kingdom come, and get to cheat a little bit on that diet part.

I started off with a late lunch at Katz's deli, which is down on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  I'd been to the famous deli when my sister Abby came to town last year, and thoroughly enjoyed the super-size deli sandwich you get there.

This time I put aside the pastrami I got last time and tried what Abby had on the previous visit - the corned beef.  I must say - Katz has good pastrami, but their corned beef is the best I've ever had.  I polished off three-fourths of the sandwich, so I had a bunch of walking to do!

It was a mile to the bridge, so I walked there.  The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest standing suspension bridges in the country, and is now a National Historic Landmark.  The bridge is one of 3 that connect Brookly to Manhattan, the others being the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges).  There's a roadway and a walkway, and over 4,000 people walk across the bridge each day.  Considering the nice (but very hot) weather and the fact it was one day after a holiday, I bet there was a bunch more the Thursday I went.  From start to finish, it's 2 miles across, though the bridge itself is only 1 mile.  The picture below is of the Manhattan Bridge.

Afterward, I went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which is a huge park built by the same guys who built Central Park in Manhattan.  It's pretty amazing to see this massive park area in the middle of the biggest city in America, and Prospect Park seems a bit more secluded from the rest of the city.

I spent a couple of hours walking around the Park, and then when I was sufficiently tired, walked a bit further to Junior's - the famous cheesecake place - to cheat a bit more on my diet.  After what I'm pretty sure was over 10 miles of walking, that was perfectly OK!