The pedals of history are turning on the South Brooklyn waterfront.
More than a hundred bicyclists rode from DUMBO to Red Hook last Saturday on what was the first-ever bicycle tour along the long fenced-off waterfront.
“The energy of the bike riders so close to the river was amazing,” said Brian McCormick, a spokesman for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, which organized the tour.
McCormick’s group is designing a 14-mile off-street path that will eventually stretch from Greenpoint to Sunset Park, and create a car-free connection between North and South Brooklyn (see map).
More than a mile of the multiple-lane path will run within the state’s Brooklyn Bridge Park project, which will stretch from the foot of the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO to the foot of Atlantic Avenue in Cobble Hill. Another mile of engine-free fast lane will also built as part of new park slated for Red Hook that will be built on land that is occupied by Port Authority offices and a parking lot.
Saturday’s riders got a sneak peek of the first 10-mile installment of the waterfront greenway, slated to be complete by 2015.
“I felt like I was in this secret inner-city-rural space where the air actually felt clean,” said Chris Gullian, who frequently bikes to Red Hook from his apartment in Fort Greene. He said that path would get him pedaling even more often.
“Riding with no cars around takes the stress out,” he said.
Another rider, Paul Murphy, said that he had only visited the waterfront once before, to visit a manufacturer’s office that has since moved to make way for the waterfront condo and open-space development commonly referred to as “Brooklyn Bridge Park.”
“I felt like I was in the middle of the river,” he said. “You are so close to Governors Island, so close to Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. It feels like a secret place you are being let into.”
City, state and private funding will pay for the $19-million greenway.
