Fewer Miles, More Challenge and Beauty on Walks

The Brooklyn Bridge, empty in the middle of a beautiful summer day

In the past week I walked fewer miles than the week before: this week was 67 miles, the previous week was 91 miles.  But I walked in some beautiful and challenging places.

Yesterday I walked the Brooklyn Bridge. Completed in 1883, it was the longest bridge in the world until 1903--nearly 6,000 feet or 1,825 meters from Manhattan to Brooklyn crossing the East River.  

I loved this bridge from the first time I walked across it in the 90s.  When I returned from a year in Iraq in 2010, I went to New York City and one of the first things I did was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  After so much ugly I wanted to be in civilization in a beautiful place. Here is the blog post from that day in January 2010.

Earlier this week I walked across the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, another beautiful bridge. The span across the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Camden was completed in 1926. At 9,500 feet or 2,900 meters it is almost a half mile longer than the Brooklyn Bridge and rises 150 feet above the Delaware at the center of the span.  

On Sunday last week I walked up Indianhead Road in Lancaster County. This rural road that runs parallel to a busy road has an average grade of 11% but near the top the grade is 20%.  So it's a good workout even walking.  

In the coming weeks I am planning to cross more big bridges.  One of them is the Tappan Zee Bridge--3.1 miles or 5km across the river--a six miles round trip.  There are many bridges to cross in New York City including the 1.5-mile Queensborough Bridge.  

I am also going to walk some of the 5-mile hills in Western Pa. and Upstate New York. I will be off the bike for a while, but I can still get a workout.