Wednesday, July 29, 2015

The Unicycle Bridge Tour Celebrates the High Bridge Reopening



The Unicycle Bridge Tour participated in the High Bridge Festival, July 25, 2015, celebrating the re-opening of New York City’s oldest standing bridge.

Special Thanks to:
Adrian Sas, Producer, It’s My Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Anthony Sama, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Lauren Sylvester, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Scott Ritter, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Jennifer Lantzas, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation


Rob Hickman, Abdullah Muhaimin Wright, Ken Springle, Rodrigo Sanz

View the June 11, 2015 Unicycle Bridge Tour High Bridge crossing at: unicyclenycbridgetour.blogspot.com/2015/06/420-high-bridge.html

Monday, July 27, 2015

#450 Stone Bridge, gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Stone Bridge, gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 1929, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 27, 2015, Keith Nelson, Rob Hickman

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

#449 Discovery Garden Bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Discovery Garden Bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Landscape Architects.
July 27, 2015, Rob Hickman, Keith Nelson

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

#448 Stone Bridge, gift of Mrs. John Hills, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Stone Bridge, gift of Mrs John Hills, 1929, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 27, 2015, Rob Hickman, Keith Nelson

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

#447 Native Flora Garden Bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Native Flora Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 27, 2015, Rob Hickman, Keith Nelson

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

From bbg.org:
BBG’s Native Flora Garden expansion—a recently planted area that features a cultivated pine barrens and a meadow modeled after Long Island's Hempstead Plains—was installed a century after BBG first established its Local Flora Section. Part of BBG's Campaign for the Next Century, the new habitats include 150 native species, many of them rare or threatened and most propagated from seeds legally collected from the wild. The project furthers the Garden’s effort in plant conservation and reinforces its role as a resource for learning about native ecosystems.

#446 Stone Bridge, gift of Alfred T. Jenkins, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Stone Bridge, gift of Alfred T. Jenkins, 1939, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 27, 2015, Rob Hickman, Keith Nelson

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

#445 Stone Arch Bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Stone Arch Bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 27, 2015, Keith Nelson, Rob Hickman

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

#444 Japanese Garden rustic bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Japanese Garden rustic bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 27, 2015, Rob Hickman, Keith Nelson

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

#443 Japanese Garden bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


Japanese Garden bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 27, 2015, Keith Nelson, Rob Hickman

Done as part of 'Forbidden Pleasures', an annual event for BBG staff. Cycling is not permitted in the garden. Special Thanks to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Julie Lang and Scot Medbury.

View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

From bbg.org:
The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden is one of the oldest and most visited Japanese-inspired gardens outside Japan. It is a blend of the ancient hill-and-pond style and the more recent stroll-garden style, in which various landscape features are gradually revealed along winding paths. The garden features artificial hills contoured around a pond, a waterfall, and an island while carefully placed rocks also play a leading role. Among the major architectural elements of the garden are wooden bridges, stone lanterns, a viewing pavilion, the torii or gateway, and a Shinto shrine.

The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden is an excellent place to experience the cherry blossom season from April to May as over two dozen trees from BBG's diverse collection are planted here.

The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden was the first Japanese garden to be created in an American public garden. It was constructed in 1914 and 1915—at an initial cost of $13,000, a gift of early BBG benefactor and trustee Alfred T. White—and it first opened to the public in June 1915. It is considered to be the masterpiece of its creator, Japanese landscape designer Takeo Shiota (1881–1943). Shiota was born in a small village about 40 miles from Tokyo, and in his youth spent years traversing Japan on foot to explore the natural landscape. In 1907 he came to America, driven by an ambition to create, in his words, "a garden more beautiful than all others in the world."

The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden underwent a major restoration in 1999 and 2000, with generous funding from the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, the New York State 1996 Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act, Independence Community Foundation, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Auxiliary.