NYC Waterfalls Art Project - A View From Brooklyn

Last weekend I went to the Brooklyn waterfront to get some photos of the temporary art project exhibit called the New York City Waterfalls. The waterfalls were designed by the internationally acclaimed artist Olafur Eliasson.

This project, commissioned by the Public Art Fund and presented in collaboration with the City, will be on display from June 26 through October 13, 2008. It features four 90- to 120-foot-tall waterfalls installed along the East River. Fish and aquatic life are protected by filtering the water through intake pools suspended in the river

The Waterfalls will flow daily from 7am to 10pm, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am to 10pm.
(Click on all photos to enlarge)

Since I was already in the DUMBO (down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass) neighborhood in Brooklyn, I walked down to that waterfront first to take some photos of the Manhattan Bridge.
There is a nice walkway located there that has some good views of the bridge. A few different subway lines go over this bridge connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, and there is always lots of car and truck traffic, so the sound can be quite interesting when you stand underneath the bridge!

This is the waterfall on Pier 35 in Manhattan, as seen from across the East River from Brooklyn.
Then I walked from the Manhattan Bridge towards the Brooklyn Bridge. You can faintly see the waterfall at this point.
A nice view below of the Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn. If you remember my blog post about July 4th, I was standing on the Pier 17 that you can see in this photo, taking photos of the waterfalls from the Manhattan side that day.

Getting closer to the Brooklyn Bridge from the east side.

Close up of the Brooklyn Bridge east anchorage waterfall.....it created a little bit of a rainbow as I was taking the shot looking into the sun.


The next few photos are a little out of order, but I wanted to show you the pretty walkway and park, and views you can have from the Brooklyn waterfront of lower Manhattan skyline. It really is a lovely place to take pictures of the city skyline.

Another view of the Pier 35 waterfall.


An artist was making an interesting twig sphere in the park.


A little man made "pebble beach" along the East River -- no swimming allowed!

Another view of the east side of the Brooklyn Bridge waterfall.


A pretty bride having her photos taken with a NYC skyline and Brooklyn Bridge background.


Now I approach Fulton Landing, where in 1642, men in rowboats served as the first ferries crossing the East River currents to shuttle early New Yorkers back and forth between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Then in 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to pedestrian and horse and buggy traffic. Today you can still walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, on a walkway above vehicular traffic, and I highly recommend doing that if you visit NYC!
This is The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, housed in an old fire boat building on Fulton Landing. There are always long lines to buy some fantastic ice cream! Also if you remember my blog post about "The Slice Of Brooklyn Pizza Tour" the first pizzeria stop, Grimaldi's, is located right down the block from the landing.
Now I am on the west side of the Brooklyn Bridge waterfall! What a good view! It sounds so wonderful!

In the photo below, you can see The Manhattan Bridge in the background, and The Brooklyn Bridge waterfall and the building at the bottom is part of an elegant restaurant called The River Cafe, which has a beautiful view of Manhattan and New York Harbor with an outdoor terrace and an indoor water garden. Seeing the NYC skyline lit up at night is so magical, so this is the place to have a very special romantic dinner if you visit NYC.

A water taxi about to go under the bridge.

New this year, and in the process of being expanded, is a brand new park extension of the Brooklyn waterfront, called Brooklyn Bridge Park It was outfitted with picnic tables and umbrellas and it even had a bar selling beer, wine and soda and water, and some free outdoor concerts will be held here at different times of the summer season.

What a wonderful place to enjoy some nice summer weather, some great views of the city, and to just watch the river traffic go by!

Remember the water taxi? These lucky passengers got very close to the waterfall!

I loved the views of the waterfall from this angle, so I took quite a few photos of it.

You can see two waterfalls in this photo at the same time.

The East River has quite a bit of traffic -- barges, tugboats, taxis, sightseeing boats, fire and police boats, coast guard, private yachts and sailboats, etc.

This is the view of the New York Harbor and The Statue of Liberty looking from the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

We are now driving home on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, and we pass one more waterfall located between Brooklyn Piers 4 and 5, and adjacent to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

You can see my camera in our car's side view mirror if you enlarge the photo!

There is one more waterfall included in this arts project that is positioned next to the north side of Governor's Island in the New York Harbor, but I could not get a good photo of it from a Brooklyn vantage point. It is pictured in my blog post about July 4, however.

I hope you found our NYC Waterfalls cool and refreshing, and I hope you, too, can get a chance to see them in person, before they disappear!