01:00 AM EST on Sunday, November 7, 2004

BY BOB DOWNING
Knight Ridder Newspapers

NEW YORK --

The Big Apple is one of the best cities in the United States for walkers, and one of its best walks is across the Brooklyn Bridge.

New York City was named one of the 12 best walking cities recently by the American Podiatric Medical Association. The others were Philadelphia, Jersey City, Chicago, Madison, Wis., St. Louis, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., Honolulu, San Diego, San Francisco and El Paso.

Crossing the very imposing and historic Brooklyn Bridge is not a hike but an easy, breezy stroll with spectacular views of the skyline of New York City and its harbor. It takes about a half-hour for walkers to saunter one way across the 6,016-foot span connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan.

It's especially magical at twilight when the sun drops behind Liberty Island, the sky begins to darken and the city lights begin to twinkle. The suspension bridge itself is an impressive sight, with its towers and delicate gossamer lacework of steel wire cables. Dubbed the new Eighth Wonder of the World when it opened in 1883, it's still New York City's third most famous icon after the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.

And even in this era of mega-everything, it's an imposing sight: tens of thousands of miles of cables, granite towers rising 276 1/2 feet (159 feet above the road), its main span 135 feet above the East River. It's 85 feet wide, its main span is 1,595 1/2 feet long, and it weighs more than 14,680 tons excluding its caissons, towers and anchorages. The bridge's foundation goes down 44 feet below ground in Brooklyn, 78 feet in Manhattan.

It relies on four main cables that are 3,578 1/2 feet long. Each is 15 1/2 inches in diameter and is formed by 5,434 wires. Placed end to end, the wire in just one cable would stretch from the Brooklyn Bridge to San Francisco's Golden Gate.

At least 27 workers died building the bridge -- not counting its designer, John Augustus Roebling, who died in 1869 before construction could begin. He succumbed to an infection after his foot was crushed by a ferry while surveying possible bridge sites.

Washington Roebling inherited his father's mission, but was bedridden in 1873 after he suffered caisson disease, also known as the bends. He watched the work through a telescope from his apartment in Columbia Heights and relayed orders to the workers via his wife, Emily.

No one knows how many suicides have jumped from it over the years. You may walk or ride across it in complete safety, however, on a wooden platform 11 1/2 feet above the six lanes of traffic. It is 15 feet, 7 inches wide and is shared by bicyclists on the right and walkers and joggers on the left -- an estimated 1,700 bicyclists and 3,562 pedestrians per day.

If you go FROM PROVIDENCE: If you're driving, we recommend starting at the Brooklyn end, which is easier to reach and affords the best view as you cross the bridge: Take I-95 South through Connecticut and into New York. Pick up I-278 (Breuckner Expressway) and follow it across the Triboro Bridge to Exit 28A, Cadman Street. Follow Cadman to Old Fultan Street and Fultan Ferry Landing almost directly under the bridge.

FROM MANHATTAN: If you're in Manhattan, the bridge entrance is on Centre Street between Chambers and Murray streets at the Old City Hall Plaza or City Hall Park. Or for $2 you can take the subway to Brooklyn and walk back: Take the A Train to High Street, the first stop in Brooklyn. Walk from the subway station to the Fulton Ferry Landing.

ON THE WEB: www.nycroads.com/crossings/brooklyn

www.endex.com/gf/buildings/bbridge/bbridge.html

www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/bridges.html.