BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) – A New York City woman is on a mission to clean up one of New York’s most iconic landmarks – the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Brooklyn Bridge attracts millions of visitors each year, and has recently been defaced with trash, hair ties, receipts, napkins, and locks attached to its fences.
The Brooklyn Eagle first reported this issue.
However, there is one Brooklynite on a mission to clean up the trash, with plans of hosting a monthly meet-up with volunteers to keep the beloved bridge looking gorgeous and clean.
“I live in Brooklyn Heights, and most days I’m on the bridge for the commute to work and other stuff. Over the past ten months, in one section of the bridge, it has been getting worse and worse,” said Ellen Baum, a 37-year-old working in tech.
“One day, I was looking at the bridge, and I was just like, I’ve had it. I have free will. If people can put this stuff on, I can easily take it off,” she added.
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The Clean up
About a week ago, Baum decided it was time to take action and began cleaning up litter left by visitors. For the past 11 days, she has dedicated a few hours each day to removing trash from the bridge’s fences.
Baum says she has removed everything from unused tampons to condoms that people have tied to the bridge.
She said there’s so much happening in the city and the world at large that she feels absolutely helpless about, and that this one thing is what she knew she could do – so she has tackled it head-on.
On Wednesday evening, after completing a few hours of cleanup, Baum spoke with PIX11 News about her efforts.
Baum has been spending about an hour or two removing the trash and then posting her progress on Reddit to document and share it – and people are fans.
A before-and-after photo showcases the cleanup efforts of a Brooklyn woman. Photo Courtesy: Ellen Baum.
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The New York Reddit response
“You are a rockstar,” wrote Zyyga.
“You are a hero preserving a NYC Monument! Thanks you,” wrote tmoney 139.”
Many Reddit users also took to the platform to ask why any tourist or visitor would deface the monument.
“I’m guessing this is one of those stupid trends. For tourists, it’s a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience; they don’t live here, so for them it only means doing it once for the likes, then they fly back to their boring town. For us, it means dealing with this,” wrote defiantspcship.
Others just could not wrap their head around the new trend.
A Brooklynite perspective
Many people support Baum’s mission, and some groups and individuals have offered to help, such as Pick Up Pigeons. Baum says the group helped a little, and New York City Redditors have also wanted to lend a helping hand.
Baum says it is a growing effort, but a small group of people, usually tourists, ask her why she removes the trash. Baum says, though, that some people romanticize the notion.
However, Baum stated that most people defend her cleanup.
For Ellen Baum, though, the bottom line is this:
“It’s an extension of my home, I’m on it every day. I don’t own a fence, but if I were living in the suburbs, I wouldn’t allow someone to put trash like that on my own fence,” Baum said. “On top of that, when the stuff gets wet, it eventually deteriorates, and then it falls off, and then it blows into traffic or blows onto a cyclist, or ends up in the East River. From an environmental perspective, it’s also disgusting. But I also want people to enjoy the bridge as I see it.”
Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here.
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