The longest bridge in the city is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.  It was built in the early 1960s to connect Brooklyn and Staten Island.  Until then, the only way to get to Staten Island from the rest of the city was by ferry.

Aside from its length, you could easily say that the Verrazano-Narrows is overshadowed by other bridges in the city.  It’s certainly not as legendary as the Brooklyn Bridge.  It doesn’t carry as much daily traffic as the George Washington Bridge.  It doesn’t have the antiquity of the recently-reopened High Bridge.  It hasn’t been immortalized in song as the 59th Street (Queensboro/Ed Koch) bridge was.

But yet, there is no denying that the Verrazano-Narrows bridge is still unique and special to New York.  Much like the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s construction was considered an engineering triumph of the day.  When completed, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.  The two bridge towers, 693 feet high, are actually not in parallel.  Due to the curvature of the earth, they are about 3 inches further apart at the top than they are at the bottom.

I’ve lived in southern Brooklyn since I was nine years old, and the Verrazano-Narrows bridge is a visible landmark visible from most of the region.  I could see it just about any day that I walked westward along Avenue M where, off in the distance, the bridge’s eastern tower rises into the sky.

While the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is not as iconic (and perhaps not as beautiful as) the Brooklyn Bridge, it does have a beauty all its own.  I recently took a stroll along the Belt Parkway last Sunday at sunset, hoping to catch some nice shots of the bridge.  As you can see from the shots here, I was not disappointed.  The bridge and the sunset together put on an amazing display that I was privileged to be able to attempt to capture.

As always, your feedback on these photos is encouraged and appreciated.  Please feel free to let me know what you think!

Zev

For 52Frames, the weekly assignment was Street Photography and, truly, if there is anyplace in the United States that is idea for street photography, it’s Times Square.  The choice to shoot there was made easier by the fact that my day job is right in Times Square, on the corner of 42nd Street and 7th Avenue.  Street photography isn’t as much about the street itself as it is about the human condition, about capturing people in their “natural environment,” without the fancy poses and lighting and all that.

I had a plan to try to shoot Times Square empty of people.  You might ask how I could possibly do that, since there are *always* people in Times Square, 24 hours a day.  Well, there is a way you can do it by taking a series of photographs and, using the magic of Photoshop, edit the people out.  Unfortunately, for technical reasons (including my failure to think it completely through!  ), it didn’t quite work out.

Nonetheless, I still had a bunch of shots that I took that day.  If I couldn’t get rid of the people, I reasoned, perhaps I could combine the shots.  I found four shots that showed interesting people in Times Square and blended them together.  I believe this shot shows not only the hustle and bustle of the city, but also how people — residents and tourists alike, enjoy being at the Crossroads of the World.

Zev

P.S.  If you like photos of New York City, please be sure to check out my New York City photo gallery!

I took some nice shots, but the shot I’m proudest of is this panorama of the New York City skyline.  I took this at sunset from Brooklyn Bridge Park.  This is a panorama of eight shots stitched together.

NYC Skyline From Brooklyn Bridge Park