We bought the Sunday NY Times the first Sunday we were here…..this is Den at the newsstand that day which is about a block from our house on 1st Ave. After that we decided to get it delivered daily. It arrives early morning right outside our apartment door. We are loving it! The content is so vast and so detailed every single day. Our goal has become to try to finish reading one day’s paper before the next day arrives….not always easy. Fortunately, the Saturday home delivery includes much of the Sunday “guts” such as the Book Review, NY Mag with crossword, etc, so we really have two days to get through it. However, it is always amazing as to how extensively the arts are covered on Sundays even when there have been special sections on a Saturday. Just so much to see and do here! The sports section in the daily paper is embedded in the business section..interesting! It is not usually full of Bronco news….but it was this week after the Manning vs Manning showdown.
Last Saturday morning we gave ourselves 30 minutes to peruse the Saturday paper and then headed out for a day at the Brooklyn Bridge. About a couple thousand people had the same plan as there were hoardes walking and bicycling across the bridge. This is true everywhere….no matter what day or time, there are crowds of people. To get there from our apartment we took the subway 6 to the City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge exit and came up above in a greenspace by City Hall. We were immediately mesmerized by a group of African American young men who were showin’ off their stuff…..hip hop dancing and acrobatics. Their routine was both captivating and funny and they were great at working the crowd for $.
We then walked across the bridge to Brooklyn, one of our longtime goals in planning for our trip to NY.
Along the way are plaques and memorials describing the amazing construction. We had seen the PBS special and were in awe of the cablework. We also remembered that the designer, John Roebling, a German immigrant, died from tetanus during the construction, and it was turned over to his son, Washington. He worked with other immigrants deep under the river in enclosed shafts to dig the foundation, and he acquired the bends and became incapitated. He was never able to get out of bed to see the site again. The last part of the construction was supervised by his wife, Emily……quite a feat for those times. There were also many killed during construction who are remembered on the bridge. The walkway is a wooden planking that is above the road so that bikes and pedestrians can enjoy the views without worrying about car traffic. However, the bicyclists are often fast and impatient, and one has to be very careful to stay on the footpath side and not cross the white line into the biking lane. 
At the foot of the bridge is a relatively new park that has been reclaimed from waste land. It was full of families flying kites and enjoying the sun. Our trusty guidebook, Frommer’s, suggested pizza at Grimaldi’s…..but all the guidebooks must recommend this as the line was two blocks long to get seated! Not worth it, in our opinion! We ate lunch at a charming old tavern called 7 Old Fulton and had Peroni’s and watched some of the Yankes game…..yes, the Yankees game (Den is starting to become less a Yankees-hater!). Afterwards we strolled to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Works reputed to have the best ice cream in the city. It was delicious and a fun way to end our stay before we walked back to the Manhattan side. 
Live from New York 