Comments (0) Best Bridge to Run - 2010
Williamsburg Bridge
The minuses generally outweigh the pluses for running on the city's East River bridges. The Brooklyn Bridge is beautiful, but so unbearably crowded that you'll either mow down a tourist trying to run or slow down to a crawl. Running in the exhaust of the Queensboro Bridge (except on Marathon Day) will make you feel like you've smoked a pack of cigarettes. Coming off the Manhattan Bridge, on either side of the river, feels like you're running into the middle of a freeway. But the Williamsburg Bridge is a nice compromise: It's not too crowded, and the blend of hipsters on bikes, Hasidic families out for a stroll, and runners is manageable. The view of the lower two bridges can't be beat, especially in the early morning. Coming from Brooklyn, it's fun to realize that you have climbed a couple hundred feet into the sky and are parallel to the 17th floor of apartment buildings. And once you're off the bridge, it's not a terrible run to connect to either the East Side paths in Manhattan or the trails of McCarren Park in Brooklyn.
