The city plans to begin redesigning a “chaotic” entryway to the Brooklyn Bridge this spring, officials said Friday.
The Department of Transportation will overhaul the Manhattan bike and foot entrance to the bridge, creating separate spaces for cyclists and pedestrians, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference.
The project will add a dedicated bike connection along Centre Street at the Manhattan entrance, marking the first time cyclists and pedestrians have been fully separated at that approach.
What You Need To Know
The Brooklyn Bridge is set to get separate entrances for cyclists and pedestrians at the Manhattan side
A new dedicated bike connection will run along Centre Street and crosswalks will be widened at the end of the bridge
The project is expected to be finished before the FIFA World Cup in June
Cyclists and pedestrians have had separate paths along the bridge itself since 2021, when the city transformed a Manhattan-bound vehicular lane into a protected two-way bike lane.
“While DOT’s installation of dedicated bike lanes in 2021 transformed the experience of crossing the bridge, what we see is pedestrians and cyclists are still forced into a chaotic bottleneck,” Mamdani said. “This is an opportunity to rectify something that should have been done a long time ago.”
The mayor said work is expected to be completed ahead of the FIFA World Cup in June. The final match will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in July, with the event expected to draw more than 1 million visitors to the five boroughs.
A before (top) and after rendering of the reconstructed bike and pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan. (Courtesy New York City DOT)
According to the city, nearly 30,000 pedestrians use the Brooklyn Bridge daily. After the 2021 remodel, the number of cyclists traversing the bridge each day more than doubled, going from 2,652 to 5,625 in 2025, the city said.
“This shows that when we invest in safe, high-quality bike infrastructure, more people use it,” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said Friday. “It didn’t just benefit cyclists. It created more room and a better experience for the millions of pedestrians who cross the bridge every year, many of them tourists, who support our economy.”
The redesign is also set to double the width of the southern crosswalk between the bridge and City Hall Park, giving pedestrians more space, the city said.
The Brooklyn Bridge project is part of a larger street redesign initiative by the Mamdani administration ahead of the World Cup.