Fifteen years is a long time. It's strange to think about how teenagers in high school weren't born before 9/11/2011, or that how, moving forward, more than half my life will always be in the post-9/11 world. As has been tradition since 2002, the night sky in NYC was illuminated by two bright blue beams of light. And as is my personal tradition, I set out to photograph the iconic spectable. This year, I photographed Tribute in Light from the Brooklyn Bridge, which is a landmark I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I've only walked across a handful of times in all my years living in Brooklyn. I also made my way back down towards DUMBO, ending my night at Brooklyn Bridge Park, as I did last year.
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Photo Set Information:
- Date Taken: September 2016
- Camera Used: Pentax K-3ii
I made my way over to the Brooklyn Bridge right before the 7:11pm sunset. There were a ton of tourists and photographers alike.
In previous years, I've photographed the lights from the Manhattan Bridge, where the Brooklyn Bridge was always in the foreground. Actually being on the bridge was a different vantage point entirely.
I get the whole locks on bridges thing because of Paris, but there's this new thing where people tie their earbuds, which is very peculiar.
Tribute in Light through the Brooklyn Bridge
The two beams converging in the sky
What I didn't realize was how far the lights had moved from the original Ground Zero site. It's much further downtown now as evidenced in this photo.
One of my favorite photos from this night. The architecture and the lamp posts of the Brooklyn Bridge are so iconic. There's a good Ken Burns documentary about the building of the bridge.
Traffic and the lights
I do like the Brooklyn Bridge a lot more than the Manhattan Bridge because there are more interesting features and angles.
A unique look at the 9/11 lights from under the Brooklyn Bridge arch
. It's weird that people thought it was a good idea to have 9/11 as their anniversary, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as they were foreign.)
Right after this, a man proposed to a woman on the bridge (not the couple shown). It's weird that people thought it was a good idea to have 9/11 as their anniversary, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as they were foreign.
I made my way back over to Brooklyn Bridge Park, where I photographed the lights last year. This was seen from Pier 1.
"In Peace and War - Semper Sealift". A Naval shirt on this spectator.
The pylons here are a very popular photo site. This probably won't be the only photo of Tribute in Light from this viewpoint that you'll see this year.
The yellow sign says "Do Not Climb on the Rocks". There were definitely police officers enforcing this rule, as I personally found out.
Lower Manhttan and the Brooklyn Bridge Park pier
