A Guide to Walking NYC’s 3 East River Bridges in One Afternoon

If you’re looking for a fun way to spend a summer afternoon in NYC, I can’t recommend this walk enough.

We walked all three East River bridges - the Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridges - with some fun food and coffee stops along the way, and it ended up being one of my favorite afternoons in the city this summer.

The entire route is about 7.5 miles and took us around 2.5 hours, including plenty of stops.

Below you’ll find my exact Google Maps route, every stop we made, a few extra recommendations if you want to customize the day, and my thoughts on each bridge.

This Google Map shows the exact route I took and the stops we made. I also added a few extra spots that I think would be fun to work into your own adventure!

Why this route? I knew I wanted to end on the Brooklyn Bridge and finish back in Manhattan, so starting in Williamsburg made the most sense. We took the subway over, but if you’re coming from Manhattan, I think taking the ferry across the East River would be such a fun way to start the day.

I also planned the direction of each bridge crossing to maximize the views…there’s nothing quite like seeing the Manhattan and Brooklyn skyline get better and better as you go.