The Brooklyn Bridge is one of New York City\u2019s most iconic landmarks, drawing millions of visitors each year for its history and sweeping skyline views. But for many who cross it, their view is less flattering.<\/p>\n
Locks, hair ties, hygiene products and other debris have accumulated along the fences that line the bridge\u2019s pedestrian walkway. What some tourists consider a symbolic tradition has turned into an unsightly problem.<\/p>\n
One Brooklyn woman decided she\u2019d had enough.<\/p>\n
Ellen Baum, a Brooklyn Heights resident, has been spending her own time removing the clutter from the bridge, determined to restore the view for commuters, walkers and tourists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was walking one day and watching the trash blow in the wind, and I just decided I\u2019d had enough,\u201d Baum said. \u201cI realized I could take this into my own hands. I didn\u2019t have to wait for the city to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baum says the ease with which people attach items to the bridge inspired her to start removing them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs easily as people put crap up here, I can take it down,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I started\u2014and it just escalated from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baum says she has filed multiple 311 complaints over the years but was told by the Department of Sanitation that no violations were found. She believes the ongoing buildup not only detracts from the bridge\u2019s appearance but also disrespects its historic significance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an iconic landmark,\u201d she said. \u201cIt deserves better.\u201d<\/p>\n
News 12 reached out to the New York City Department of Transportation, which oversees the Brooklyn Bridge for comment. <\/p>\n
Baum says since she started over a week ago, she’s been making good progress even accumulating some volunteers. She says anyone with bolt cutters are welcome to help her remove the locks, something she cannot do with just her serrated wine key. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Bridge is one of New York City\u2019s most iconic landmarks, drawing millions of visitors each year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,11198,100,99,9,24,4303,63,4304,11448],"class_list":{"0":"post-139325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-bridge","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-department-of-sanitation","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-trash","17":"tag-volunteers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}