WHEELING THROUGH AMERICA: 10 BARRIER-FREE TREASURES FROM BIG CITIES TO NATIONAL PARKS TO EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN part 2

BROOKLYN BRIDGE

What American landmark could be more iconic than the Brooklyn Bridge?

And what could be more exhilarating for a disabled visitor to learn that the pedestrian pathway is 100 percent barrier-free?

The moment you start the ascent up the pedestrian path (above the parts for trains and cars), your heart skips a beat.

One could traverse John Roebling’s steel cable suspension bridge a thousand times and discover something new every 1,600-foot journey.

Rolling west into Manhattan an hour before sunset, one can gaze north for dazzling perspectives of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings illuminated by the low-hanging sun.

The fellow walkers on the 1883 masterpiece are pure New York street theater – fat, skinny, loud, private, friendly, hurried, strange, local, immigrant, tourist, banker, pauper.

Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan to Brooklyn New York, 212-360-3000., www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dot/html/motorist/bridges.html

Tomorrow: Monument Valley