A nice view from the ferry landing at the foot of Old Fulton Street. There’s been a ferry landing here since the mid-1600s; this was the route that Robert Fulton used for his steam ferry in 1814. (And got his name on the two streets at either end of the route as a memorial.) The Brooklyn Bridge was constructed specifically to provide an alternative to the East River ferries and is closest to the line of the Fulton ferry route.
Most views of the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn are angled south of west, so that you see the skyscraper cluster of lower Manhattan. This one is looking north of west, so you get the red-brick housing projects north of the bridge, the approach to the Manhattan bridge, and the Empire State Building way off the in the distance. And a bunch of donut fenders in the foreground to guide boats at the ferry slip.
The handrail has a radiating-diagonal pattern that is a nice homage to the stays of the Brooklyn Bridge. It also has a quote cut into the metal. Here’s one section of rail:
If I did not know where the handrail was and someone said that a public art installation had the words “throb, baffled” I would immediately guess Walt Whitman. Regardless of how you feel about his poetry, it has an unmistakeable sound. Knowing the location, it pretty much has to be from “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry“:
…Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!
Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg’d waves!
Gorgeous clouds of the sunset! drench with your splendor me, or the men and women generations after me!
Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers!
Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta! stand up, beautiful hills of Brooklyn!
Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!
Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution!
Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house or street or public assembly!
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