Manhattan Bridge from Washington and Water Street (2016)
One of the most photographed and iconic locations in the city is the Manhattan Bridge view from the intersection of Washington and Water Street in Brooklyn. From here, the Empire State Building lies perfectly in between the steel legs of the Manhattan Bridge.
Now a bustling location of visitors and locals alike, it’s fascinating to see photographs of the same location from the 1970’s; where the view was the same, but the area was much more gritty. The location is also depicted on the poster of the 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America.
I visited Washington and Water Street in the Dumbo neighborhood on May 3 2015. In the background there is some construction for the renovated Main Street portion of the Brooklyn Bridge park, which opened a few months later in July 2015. On the day I visited, the intersection was closed off for the Five Boro Bike Tour, the largest recreational cycling event in the United States. The woman in foreground of the painting is a participant of the cycling tour.
