Biking NYC’s bridges: Brooklyn vs Manhattan vs Williamsburg, and every other crossing
All four East River bridges have a bike path of their own: the Brooklyn Bridge on its roadway since 2021, the Manhattan and Williamsburg on their north sides, and the Queensboro on a bikes-only outer roadway since May 2025. Here is every bridge in the city you can bike, with entrances, hours and the 2025 rider counts, and the one you cannot.
- 13 crossings you can ride
- 1 where you wheel the bike
- 0 that carry it for you
Every bridge, at a glance
The East River four first, then the Hudson, Newtown Creek, the Harlem River, the Kill Van Kull, Jamaica Bay and the Narrows. The rating is what SuperSafe™ gives the bridge’s bike path on our New York map.
| Crossing | Verdict | By bike | What you ride on | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Protected cycle track | Always open |
| Manhattan Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Bike path | Always open |
| Williamsburg Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Bike path | Always open |
| Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Bike path | Always open |
| Pulaski Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Protected cycle track | Always open |
| Kosciuszko Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Shared path | Always open |
| George Washington Bridge | Rideable | Ride across | Shared path | 5am to 11:59pm |
| Robert F. Kennedy Bridge | Rideable | Ride across | Shared path | Always open |
| Roosevelt Island Bridge | Rideable | Ride across | Painted lane | Always open |
| Washington Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Protected cycle track | Always open |
| Willis Avenue Bridge | Rideable | Ride across | Shared path | Always open |
| Bayonne Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Shared path | Open 24 hours |
| Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge | Good to ride | Ride across | Bike path | Always open |
| Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge | Walk it | Wheel it | Foot tunnel or footbridge | Always open |
| Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge | No bikes | Not allowed | Not open to bikes | Always open |
The bridges, one by one
Which side the path is on, where it lands you on each shore, how many people ride it, and what changed in 2025 and 2026, with the agency’s page linked under each.
Brooklyn Bridge
Good to rideThe Brooklyn Bridge has had a two-way protected bike lane on the roadway since September 2021, so you no longer share the promenade with tourists, and since July 2026 the Manhattan end connects to a protected lane on Centre Street.
- An 8 foot two-way bike lane on the Manhattan-bound roadway, separated from traffic, opened on 14 September 2021; the raised promenade is for pedestrians only.
- 5,625 riders a day in 2025, up from 2,652 in 2021, the year the lane opened.
- Mayor Mamdani announced the redesigned Manhattan entrance in March 2026, built before the June World Cup: a protected Centre Street lane, a green bike crosswalk and a wider crosswalk to City Hall Park.
Since July 2026 the Manhattan entrance separates bikes from pedestrians for the first time; expect signs and markings to keep settling through 2026.
- Manhattan
- Centre Street at Park Row by City Hall Park, with a two-way protected lane along Centre Street from Chambers Street since July 2026.
- Brooklyn
- Adams Street at Tillary Street; the Smith Street and Jay Street protected lanes are the only protected way to it, and DOT proposed a 10 foot two-way lane down Adams Street and Boerum Place in June 2026.
Manhattan Bridge
Good to rideThe Manhattan Bridge has a bike path of its own on the north side, separate from the pedestrian walkway on the south side, and lands you on the Chrystie Street and Forsyth Street bike lanes at Canal Street.
- Separate bikeway and walkway: bikes on the north path, pedestrians on the south, and neither may use the other.
- 6,255 riders a day in 2025; the path opened to cycling in 2001.
- The Brooklyn approach shares the Adams Street and Boerum Place corridor that DOT proposed to rebuild with a two-way protected lane in June 2026.
- Manhattan
- Canal Street at Forsyth Street, fed by the Chrystie Street and Forsyth Street lanes.
- Brooklyn
- Jay Street at Sands Street in Dumbo.
Williamsburg Bridge
Good to rideThe Williamsburg Bridge is the busiest bike crossing in the city, with its own north-side bikeway, and the bump on the Delancey Street off-ramp that riders complained about for years was paved over in January 2026.
- 9,464 riders a day in 2025, up 10% on 2024 and the highest of the four East River bridges.
- Bikes use the north path and pedestrians the south, with separate landings in Brooklyn.
- A $70 million Delancey Street redesign with a continuous bike route to the Bowery is planned.
Since January 2026 the Delancey Street off-ramp is smooth; the drop at the bottom is gone.
- Manhattan
- Delancey Street at Clinton Street, with a median bike path along Delancey from Suffolk Street.
- Brooklyn
- South 5th Street at South 5th Place, joined by two-way protected lanes on South 5th Place, South 4th Street and Borinquen Place.
Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge
Good to rideSince 18 May 2025 the Queensboro Bridge’s 11 foot north outer roadway is for bikes only, with pedestrians moved to the south outer roadway, which ended two decades of sharing one narrow path.
- The north outer roadway, 11 feet wide, became bikes only on 18 May 2025 after six delays; the south outer roadway, a car lane until then, is now the pedestrian path.
- 7,509 riders a day in 2025, with around 2,785 people walking.
- DOT may narrow the north outer roadway by up to 50 feet in off-peak hours during the upper deck replacement, and old markings were still being tidied in late 2025.
Since May 2025 bikes and pedestrians have separate paths; the shared-path etiquette advice from before no longer applies.
- Manhattan
- East 60th Street between First and Second Avenues.
- Queens
- Queens Plaza North at Crescent Street.
Pulaski Bridge
Good to rideThe Pulaski Bridge between Greenpoint and Long Island City has a two-way protected bikeway on its west side, made from a former car lane in 2016, so bikes and pedestrians each have their own path.
- A two-way bikeway separated from traffic and from the pedestrian path, opened at the end of April 2016.
- Queens Community Board 2 asked DOT in June 2026 for immediate safety improvements at the Queens-side entrance after repeated vehicle encroachment.
- Queens
- 11th Street at Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, where the paint-and-post entrance drew a community board safety resolution in June 2026.
- Brooklyn
- McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint.
Kosciuszko Bridge
Good to rideThe Kosciuszko Bridge over Newtown Creek has a 20 foot shared path for bikes and pedestrians on the north side of the Brooklyn-bound span, open since August 2019, and is the quiet way between Greenpoint and Maspeth.
- A 20 foot wide shared use path on the Brooklyn-bound span, opened to walkers and riders on 28 August 2019.
- Shared with pedestrians rather than separated, but wide enough that it rarely matters.
- Brooklyn
- Van Dam Street at Meeker Avenue.
- Queens
- Laurel Hill Boulevard, with bike lanes on 43rd Street and 56th Road beyond.
George Washington Bridge
RideableYou can ride the George Washington Bridge on its rebuilt north walk between 5am and midnight, sharing it with pedestrians and dismounting at the towers, until the south walk reopens as the pedestrian side at the end of 2026.
- The north walk, rebuilt from 2018 to 2023 with ramps in place of 171 steps, is the only side open; the south walk has been closed since February 2023 for suspender rope replacement.
- Port Authority rules: 15 mph, keep right, pedestrians have the right of way, dismount at the towers, bell required; Class 1 and 2 e-bikes allowed.
- Opening moved from 6am to 5am in October 2024 after a petition for 24-hour access; the walk is 10 feet wide, narrowing to under 7 feet inside the towers.
When the south walk reopens, scheduled for the end of 2026, pedestrians move to it and cyclists get the north walk to themselves.
- Manhattan
- West 180th Street at Cabrini Boulevard, two blocks from the bus terminal.
- New Jersey
- Hudson Terrace north of the bridge, in Fort Lee.
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
RideableThe RFK Bridge’s Manhattan and Bronx spans have had ramped bike and pedestrian paths onto Randall’s Island since May 2025, while the Queens span still has the old stairs at Hoyt Avenue until its new path arrives at the end of 2027.
- New accessible paths with ramps on the Bronx span, finished in 2024, and the Manhattan span, finished in May 2025, both leading onto Randall’s Island.
- The Queens span keeps its stairs; the MTA awarded the contract for a new bike and pedestrian path across the suspension span in December 2023, due by the end of 2027.
- The MTA’s general bridges page still says to walk your bike on its walkways; its May 2025 release describes the new spans as paths for bicyclists.
- Manhattan
- East 125th Street in East Harlem, by the new ramp.
- Queens
- Hoyt Avenue in Astoria, up a staircase until the replacement path opens.
Roosevelt Island Bridge
RideableThe Roosevelt Island Bridge from Queens has bike lanes on the deck that meet the two-way Vernon Boulevard lane, but the Motorgate helix ramp onto the island is shared with cars, and the planned bike ramp has not been built.
- Bike lanes across the deck connect to the two-way protected lane on Vernon Boulevard.
- A $15 million helix bike ramp and east side bike lane was planned by the island operating corporation in 2024, with no construction started as of 2025.
- Queens
- 36th Avenue at Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City.
- Roosevelt Island
- The Motorgate helix, shared with traffic.
Washington Bridge
Good to rideThe Washington Bridge over the Harlem River at West 181st Street has had a two-way barrier-protected bike path on its north side since summer 2024, the first Harlem River bridge rebuilt for cycling.
- A two-way protected path on the north curb opened in summer 2024 and DOT declared the project complete on 16 September 2024, with a Bronx-bound bus lane alongside.
- The streets either side in Washington Heights got only painted lanes in DOT’s 2025 proposal.
- Manhattan
- Amsterdam Avenue at West 182nd Street, and Laurel Hill Terrace.
- Bronx
- University Avenue at Edward L. Grant Highway.
Willis Avenue Bridge
RideableThe Willis Avenue Bridge is the Harlem River crossing DOT points cyclists to between Manhattan and the South Bronx, with a shared bike and pedestrian path built into its 2010 rebuild, while the Third Avenue Bridge beside it asks riders to dismount.
- A dedicated shared path for walking and cycling, added with the 2010 replacement bridge.
- DOT’s Harlem River bridges plan prefers sending bikes here rather than over the Third Avenue Bridge, whose sidewalks carry dismount signs.
- Manhattan
- First Avenue at East 125th Street.
- Bronx
- Willis Avenue at East 134th Street.
Bayonne Bridge
Good to rideThe Bayonne Bridge between Staten Island and New Jersey has a 12 foot shared path with ramps at both ends, open 24 hours, under the same rules as the George Washington Bridge.
- A 12 foot mixed-use path with ramp access on both sides, open all day, every day; overnight closures for approach repairs ran from June 2025 and have ended.
- Port Authority rules apply: 15 mph, keep right, Class 1 and 2 e-bikes allowed.
- Staten Island
- Trantor Place south of Innis Street.
- New Jersey
- John F. Kennedy Boulevard between West 6th and West 7th Streets, Bayonne.
Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge
Good to rideThe Cross Bay Bridge between Broad Channel and the Rockaways has an accessible bike and pedestrian path across its full length since the MTA finished the Rockaway-side ramp in May 2025.
- A barrier-protected path on the east side; the new south ramp completed in May 2025 was the last link in the accessible route from Broad Channel to the Rockaways.
- Marine Parkway Bridge, the other Rockaway crossing, still has a narrow walkway with signs telling riders to walk.
- Broad Channel
- Cross Bay Boulevard at the north end.
- Rockaway
- Beach Channel Drive, by the new ramp.
Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge
Walk itThe Marine Parkway Bridge from Brooklyn to the Rockaways has only a narrow walkway on its west side, where MTA signs tell cyclists to walk their bikes.
- A walkway only, with signs to dismount; the MTA has not included it in its bike path program.
- Cross Bay Bridge is the Rockaway crossing with a proper path.
- Brooklyn
- Flatbush Avenue at Floyd Bennett Field.
- Rockaway
- Beach Channel Drive at Jacob Riis Park.
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
No bikesThere is no way to cycle or walk across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge; bikes cross between Brooklyn and Staten Island on the front racks of the S53, S93 and S79 buses, or once a year on the Five Boro Bike Tour.
- No bike path and no pedestrian walkway; the MTA calls a future path a long-term project tied to replacing the lower-level deck.
- The S53, S93 and S79 buses carry bikes on front racks across the bridge.
How Cyclemate routes it
The bridge SuperSafe picks most is the Brooklyn Bridge
We routed 120 journeys between twelve Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods and ten in Manhattan and counted the bridge each SuperSafe™ route crossed. The Brooklyn Bridge carried 39, the Williamsburg 35, the Queensboro 31 and the Manhattan Bridge 11, with the Pulaski and Kosciuszko taking the Greenpoint trips.
The direct route for the same journeys favored the Williamsburg, 38 to 31, and leaned harder on the Manhattan Bridge. SuperSafe™ prefers the Brooklyn Bridge’s protected roadway lane and its new Centre Street connection when the destination is downtown. Plan a route and tap SuperSafe™ to see which bridge it chose and why.
- 28,853
- riders a day across the East River bridges, 2025
- 9,464
- a day on the Williamsburg, the busiest
- 39
- of 120 SuperSafe routes over the Brooklyn Bridge
Notes and sources
Paths, entrances and dates are from NYC DOT, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the MTA, with Streetsblog, Gothamist and amNY where an agency page was silent; each bridge links its sources. Rider counts are NYC DOT’s 24-hour weekday East River bridge counts, averaged over April to October on dry days, from the February 2026 release.
The routing figures are one experiment on our New York map, run on October 6, 2026 with daytime costs: 120 neighborhood pairs routed SuperSafe™ and direct, counting the bridge path each route used. The rating in the table is what SuperSafe™ gives the bridge’s bike path, built from OpenStreetMap. For where to leave the bike at the other end, see the NYC bike parking map.
Last checked on October 6, 2026. Spotted a change? Tell us and we will update the page.
Biking New York’s bridges: your questions
Which bridge is best for biking from Brooklyn to Manhattan?
The Williamsburg Bridge for the Lower East Side and north, the Manhattan Bridge for Chinatown and SoHo, and the Brooklyn Bridge for City Hall and the Financial District. All three have a bike path separated from pedestrians: the Brooklyn Bridge since its roadway bike lane opened in September 2021, with a protected Centre Street connection since July 2026. Of 120 Brooklyn and Queens to Manhattan journeys we routed, SuperSafe chose the Brooklyn Bridge 39 times, Williamsburg 35 and the Queensboro 31.
Can you bike across the Brooklyn Bridge?
Yes. Since September 14, 2021 bikes use an 8 foot two-way protected lane on the Manhattan-bound roadway, and the raised promenade is for pedestrians only. 5,625 riders a day crossed it in 2025, up from 2,652 in 2021. The Manhattan entrance on Centre Street was rebuilt in 2026 with a protected two-way lane from Chambers Street.
Which NYC bridge has the most cyclists?
The Williamsburg Bridge, with 9,464 riders a day in 2025 in NYC DOT’s counts, followed by the Queensboro at 7,509, the Manhattan Bridge at 6,255 and the Brooklyn Bridge at 5,625. Across the four East River bridges 2025 was the fifth record year in a row, at 28,853 riders a day.
Can you bike across the Queensboro Bridge?
Yes, on the north outer roadway, which has been for bikes only since May 18, 2025, when pedestrians were moved to the south outer roadway. Enter at Queens Plaza North and Crescent Street in Queens or East 60th Street between First and Second Avenues in Manhattan.
Can you bike across the George Washington Bridge?
Yes, on the north walk, from 5am to 11:59pm, sharing it with pedestrians and dismounting at the towers. The south walk has been closed since February 2023 for suspender rope replacement and is scheduled to reopen as the pedestrian side at the end of 2026, when cyclists get the north walk to themselves. Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are allowed; the limit is 15 mph.
Can you bike across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge?
No. The Verrazzano has no bike path and no walkway. Bikes cross between Brooklyn and Staten Island on the front racks of the S53, S93 and S79 buses, or on the Five Boro Bike Tour each May. The MTA calls a future path a long-term project tied to replacing the lower deck.
Can you bike across the RFK Triborough Bridge?
From Manhattan and the Bronx, yes: both spans have had ramped bike and pedestrian paths onto Randall’s Island since May 2025. The Queens span still has stairs at Hoyt Avenue in Astoria, and its new path is due at the end of 2027.
