New York Layover: Brooklyn Bridge and DUMBO
Part of the full New York Layover: Grand Central From JFK
The Brooklyn Bridge in New York carries a wooden walkway 5,989 feet over the East River, pedestrians only since 2021, and it lands in DUMBO beside a 1922 carousel turning inside a glass box on the waterfront.
The bridge’s boardwalk has been pedestrians only since 2021
The Brooklyn Bridge opened on 24 May 1883 with a main span of 1,595 feet, the longest in the world at the time, and its walkway is the unusual part: a wooden boardwalk raised above the traffic on the centre line, rather than a footpath bolted to the outside edge. You come out level with the cables and pass through two granite towers with gothic arches cut through them.
For most of its life the boardwalk was shared with cyclists across a painted line, and it did not work. In September 2021 the city took a lane from the cars and built a protected two-way bike path on the roadway instead, leaving the upper deck to people on foot. Counts from 2024 put about 28,800 walkers and 5,500 cyclists on it on an average day. If you would rather have the construction history than work it out from the plaques, a guided crossing can be booked that continues into the streets on the far side.
DUMBO’s granite setts run from the bridge tower to the water
DUMBO takes its name from being down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass, and the single block that put it on every phone in the city is Washington Street between Front and Water. Brick warehouses run up both sides, the blue steel tower of the Manhattan Bridge spans the gap overhead, and the Empire State Building sits dead centre in the arch underneath it.
It is a live street, not a viewpoint, so cars come through and the crowd stands in the roadway between them. Early morning is when it is quiet enough to see the thing properly, and it is also when the sun is behind the tower rather than in your lens.
Three blocks downhill, Brooklyn Bridge Park runs along the water between the two bridges, and on the Empire Fulton Ferry lawn stands a glass pavilion by Jean Nouvel with a carousel inside it. The machine is a 1922 Philadelphia Toboggan Company piece, 48 carved horses and two chariots, restored over about thirty years by Jane Walentas and given to the park with her husband.
A ride costs $4. In summer it runs six days a week, closed Tuesdays, from 10am until just before 7pm, and the hours contract outside those months. The lawn around it is free and faces the whole of Lower Manhattan across the river, which is the better argument for coming down here than the carousel is.
DUMBO’s streets are Belgian block, the granite setts the warehouses were built around, and a rolling suitcase stops rolling the moment it leaves the pavement.
The airport run is longer from this side of the river
The F line stops at York Street in DUMBO and the A and C at High Street beside the bridge, and from either you change once in Manhattan or Queens onto the E line for Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue, where the AirTrain starts. Reckon on $3.00 for the subway and about an hour, plus the AirTrain’s own $8.75, which is a Port Authority fare and is charged separately from anything you paid the subway.
Door to terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), that is a longer run than most of Manhattan, so leave earlier than you would from the middle of the city. If your day has six hours in it rather than four, crossing back and picking up the Midtown route from Grand Central makes a fuller afternoon than staying on this side of the river.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near the Brooklyn Bridge and DUMBO in New York City?
Walk the bridge from the Manhattan side and keep going into DUMBO on the other end. The crossing is 5,989 feet on a wooden boardwalk raised above the traffic, and since 2021 it has been pedestrians only, with cyclists moved down to their own lane on the roadway. On the Brooklyn side, Washington Street between Front and Water is the block where the Manhattan Bridge tower frames the Empire State Building, and Brooklyn Bridge Park runs along the water below it with Jane's Carousel, a restored 1922 machine turning inside a glass pavilion, at $4 a ride. Three hours is enough for all of it at a walking pace; four if you want to sit by the river.
Do I still have to dodge cyclists on the Brooklyn Bridge?
Not since September 2021, when the city took a lane away from cars and gave cyclists a protected two-way path on the roadway. The upper boardwalk that everyone photographs is now pedestrians only, which changed the walk completely: for decades the two halves of the promenade were split by a painted line nobody respected. On an average day in 2024 about 28,800 people walked across and around 5,500 cycled, so it is still busy, just no longer a collision risk.
How long does the crossing take, and which end should I start from?
Allow 40 minutes at a tourist pace, or 25 if you keep moving; it is 1.13 miles from anchorage to anchorage. Start on the Manhattan side, because you spend the whole walk looking at the Brooklyn skyline and the harbour rather than at the city you just left, and because the far end drops you straight into the part worth stopping in. Coming back you do not have to repeat it: the subway under DUMBO reaches Midtown in about twenty minutes.
Is the carousel worth stopping for if I am not travelling with children?
For $4 and about four minutes, yes, though the building is as much the point as the ride. The machine is a 1922 Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel with 48 carved horses and two chariots, restored over decades by the woman it is named for, and it sits in a glass box on the waterfront designed by Jean Nouvel, so a ride puts you at eye level with the river and the bridges. In summer it runs six days a week, closed Tuesdays, from 10am to just before 7pm; hours contract out of season, so check before crossing.