Let’s bike all the bridges of NYC; or, my worst summer decision

Since this year’s races are mostly canceled, everyone’s looking for ways to stay focused. So, we came up with this: can we bike over each of New York City’s 173 bridges during the summer of 2020?

GW Bridge. Every. Single. Weekend.

Has anyone else biked all of NYC’s bridges?

The answer appears to be no.

We suspect there’re two reasons for this. First, it’s not that much fun. Second, to our knowledge, no map exists that identifies all of NYC’s bridges. Until now.

In our estimation, NYC’s bridges break down like this (we originally thought it was only 151 bridges):

Bronx/Manhattan interior: 43. Brooklyn/Queens: 35. East River: 8. Flushing: 11. JFK/Jamaica: 15. Staten Island: 39

Whose genius idea was this?

It was the culmination of 3 earlier NYC rides with critical failures.

In mid-May, we did a NYC-Philly ride to avoid Amtrak. But the dark truth is, we ferried from Manhattan to NJ and then biked. My coach called me out on that technicality. Why not GWB? Answer: ugh, because an extra 30 miles.

At the end of May we biked ̶a̶l̶l̶ most of NYC’s islands. We skipped Staten Island and City Island. Again, called out. NYC triathletes are so picky.

Next stop, Randalls Island

Then in June, the Tappan Zee opened up a bike lane. Suddenly the deadly boring weekly 9W ride could be a loop! But on the way up on the NY side, we got stuck when the main trail was closed behind a locked gate. The day was saved by a friendly park official who mentioned that there might be a break in the fence we could sneak through. It worked! That made it a little more adventurous. Maybe random bridge rides weren’t so bad.

By June, we’d done a lot of bridges. Including a few on the elusive Staten Island. How many more could there possibly be? So we decided to ride all the bridges of NYC. What a mistake.

Are there really that many bridges?

Yes, unfortunately.

Our estimate of 173 bridges in NYC comes from deep research. Here’s the map we (er, Janak Ramakrishnan) built.

151-ish bikeable bridges

Okay fine, we calculated this in a pretty haphazard fashion. Most of the bridges were found via visual inspection of Google Maps (but a reluctant shout out to Bing Maps for displaying city limits better). Others were unmarked, but we noticed them during our rides. And finally, we didn’t include bridges that turned out to be off limits, like the ones to High Island and Rikers Island. We tried both and neither is cyclist friendly.

stealth bridge, not on our map

Caveat: it’s possible some bridges we marked as impassible are now open (Freshkills Park/Landfill??).

What exactly counts as a “bikeable bridge?”

The definition of “bikeable NYC bridge” is pretty elastic. Our criteria are:

• At least one end of the bridge has to end in New York City (duh).
• There’s water underneath. Bridges that just go over another road are excluded. Ideally, the water should be visible (subterranean creeks definitely not required, culverts on a case-by-case basis).
• It should be legal to bike/walk over. We’ve managed some bridges that weren’t, but they’re optional. Roads that are legal for pedestrians but not cyclists are a judgment call. We’ve excluded some hiking trails, for instance, but there are gray areas.
• Roads that are closed because of the pandemic (interior of Bronx Botanical Gardens/Zoo) are not required. We may add them in when they reopen.
• Roads that are only legal to bike over sometimes (Verrazano-Narrows) are optional, although highly encouraged if the opportunity arises.
• When feasible, go to and from the bridge by bike (only exception is Staten Island: we went once by bike, but we have better things to do than pull that 30-mile New Jersey trek four times, so we used a ferry for three crossings).

Honestly, how bad is it?

Like any big race, it seems like an amazing idea until you actually get to the startline. Every ride involves about 30 wrong turns and lots of angry honking buses. Occasionally there’s a downpour and we hide under NYC’s park trees. Sometimes there’s a velodrome.

But it’s also been a pretty good way to learn about parts of NYC that only locals know about. Did you know that the Bronx has a forest? And an almost completed 12 mile bike trail?

We’re 5 rides in, and have at least 5 more to go. If you have suggestions, tips, more bridges, or want to join in part or all of a ride, we’ll be updating the map and posting the routes. And, if we missed any bridges, please tell us! But please let them not be on Staten Island.

August UPDATE: 80+ bridges down and a few lessons learned. First thank you everyone who’s contributed bridges. We had some interesting adventures. Here’s a couple of things we’ve had to admit after getting past the halfway point:

• Central Park is best explored through OpenStreetMap. Google maps doesn’t show most of the small bridges, OSM shows all of them. This article about why online maps vary is spot on about the differences. On the road, it’s kind of a letdown when you think you’ve finished and find…oh ho! Another 5 bridges.
• Bridges that involve hiking are off the table, with a caveat. After a slippery hike hoisting bikes over rocks to get to a small unmarked bridge in Seton Falls, we largely gave up on bike hikes. However, these have been some of the weirdest and most interesting bridges.

October UPDATE: Summer bridge challenge completed. Biked over all of NYC’s 173 bridges. This took: 631.5 miles, 16 rides, 4 bikes, 3 visits to Staten Island, 1 busted elbow, 2 rainstorms, 0 flats. Used a tandem for the final bridges to make sure no one enjoyed it. [All rides listed at the end of this article]

The worst kind of bike ride

Addendum: Full list of rides

• 5/31 — It was worth a try
• 6/14 — Trying to make Staten Island a loop
• 6/20 — Tappan Zee opening finally gives me the loop of my dreams
• 6/27 — Crossing the Bronx bridges + surprise beach
• 7/05 — South Brooklyn bridges and Rockaway beach
• 7/19 — Some pretty questionable bridges
• 7/21 — A few more central park bridges
• 8/8 — Queens bridges and a cement factory
• 8/15 — The road is terrible, they said. Surely they’re wrong…
• 8/23 — Staten Island has some unique bridges, also turkeys?
• 8/30 — Illegal foray into JFK + more marshy bridges
• 9/6 — 2 airports, and the last of the Staten Island bridges
• 9/14 — Spotted a missed bridge on the way to Rhode Island
• 9/20 — Laguardia Airport and next-to-last bridges ride
• 9/14 — Found a bike I dislike more than citibike…bridge challenge done!
• 10/06 — Those last few pesky bridges
• 10/18 — Manhattan Rim