Brooklyn

When I went to NYC to see The Gates, I stayed with a friend in Brooklyn. Eric, our host, was kind enough to be our tour guide and show us around Manhattan. When I called Eric to talk about my trip he made it clear that he really wanted me to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. After our long day of walking around Manhattan we took the days last train ride from Grand Central to the base of the Brooklyn Bridge.

It was nearly dusk on that overcast gray day. We walked up from the subway and turned onto the bridge, walking across the East River towards Brooklyn.

The view of the city was muted thanks to the low hanging clouds. Once we had walked for a while Eric soberly pointed out the gap in the tall buildings where the World Trade Center had once stood. As we continued walking, the cables of the suspension bridge created this amazing perspective-warping grid that changed every few feet. It was a beautiful walk that had the smell of history about it. The fact that people had been walking and looking at these same iconic views since the 1880's gave the walk a strange kind of gravity.

A little further out, Eric gestured out towards the harbor and pointed out the Statue of Liberty. After a day of being overwhelmed by the largesse and seemingly infinite size of Manhattan, seeing that statue so small and tiny out in the harbor was thought provoking and a little breath taking.

Some days you see something in the distance that means more than you ever expect, stealing your breath away for a moment. Seeing Liberty so small and seemingly vulnerable was one of those moments for me. Liberty, the goal of all mankind, so far off and so fragile, that is the symbol of this age to me.