Front St Between Adams St and Jay St

    

Just one of many streets to dip below an overpass in this neighborhood, Front Street is very deceptively-named as it doesn't appear to be on the front of anything. Straddling between DUMBO and Vinegar Hill,  the Manhattan Bridge represents a hard line between the two neighborhoods. Directly under the bridge you'll find a lone building for the DOT's Iron Shop, which seems incredibly fitting in that location.

There's no shortage of both old and new buildings around here. Likewise, there's no shortage cobblestones which have been lazily replaced and covered by other paving methods over the years. The result is a street that feels like a quilt of different materials that all must come together to offer a suitable driving surface for the 3 cars an hour which cross under here.

Adams St Between Sands St and York St

   

The neighborhoods of DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights and Vinegar Hill can often be a confusing mess of streets for pedestrians. Even when following a map, you can find yourself faced with an impassable intersection thanks to the spaghetti of on- and off-ramps leading to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge and the BQE. With all these ramps and bridges, some parts of the area can be very dark, especially when coupled with all these new high-rise buildings.

Adams Street manages to get a fair amount of natural light thanks to the dearth of buildings (save for The Watchtower which sits right here), and the fact that the bridges are still low to the ground at this point. Also helpful are all the well-groomed patches of grass which seem strangely out-of-place, but still wholly welcome.

Washington St Between Front St and Plymouth St

     

This corridor runs right through the middle of some really great old buildings. The street offers perfect – almost manufactured – views of the Manhattan Bridge tower as you walk towards the waterfront. On the weekends the sidewalks are packed with people making their way to Brooklyn Bridge park, or to the various markets and stores catering to the high-end clientele which live in the neighborhood.

Many of the towering behemoths which sit on this street bear the name Gair – more specifically, Robert Gair. Wikipedia is kind enough to point out that the man in question is responsible for inventing to corrugated cardboard box. As a result he owned a massive paper operation here in Brooklyn, one that spanned multiple buildings which still grace our streets today. Apparently The Simpsons had it all wrong.

Plymouth St Between Adams St and Main St

    

An uneven smattering of cobblestones and abandoned rails make up the roadway here under the Manhattan Bridge. At first glance it would seem that this road is abandoned and kept only for pedestrian access to the waterfront; but as I can attest, after being nearly run over by two cars, the street is very much in-service. It's really exciting to see an un-touched relic of times past still being traversed.

After living the majority of its life as the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, the strip of park space between the rundown factories and the river now enjoys the new title of Brooklyn Bridge Park. It's now part of a bigger project which will eventually encompass 85 acres along the waterfront. The insane number of people which flood the small grassy spaces here on the weekends is enough to terrify a simple-minded person such as myself. But you can't deny, it's a good lookin' park.

A lot of the old brick buildings down here are in the midst of redevelopment as they get transformed into either public spaces, or multi-million-dollar condominiums. It's a shame these sorts of things must live on such extreme ends of the spectrum from each other. Would it be impossible to see a middle-income housing development arise from the ruins of some old storehouse. I guess that's a dumb question.

Water St Between Old Fulton St and Main St

    

Walking into the artsy DUMBO neighborhood you're greeted by a seemingly impenetrable wall of construction and previously abandoned factories & storehouses. The soaring roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge summons you to continue down this otherwise unwelcoming street.

While gentrification has only had a few years to take hold in the area, I would have expect it to be more densely developed by now. There's a relaxed, airy feeling not found in similar neighborhoods. Perhaps it's just getting started. The maze of streets – made even more confusing by the BQE cutting its way through – is surprisingly fun to explore. With the East River constantly in-sight it's easy to re-orient yourself should you get turned around.