One of the best locations to enjoy vistas of Manhattan and the surrounding waterways is from the promenade in Brooklyn Heights. Here you will find postcard views of lower Manhattan, South Street Seaport, the Brooklyn Bridge, the East River, and many of New York City’s iconic landmarks – the American International Building, the Empire State building, the Chrysler Building, the New York Life Insurance Building, and the Met Life Tower.

An added bonus is that the promenade faces west, and that means sunsets. This is the time I would recommend visiting; during the evening, you have the best light and the gradual darkness coming over the city with a menagerie of lights. If you are fortunate, you will be rewarded with a sunset like this one – brilliant orange-red with streaks of yellow, all back lighting our Lady of Liberty. But I sell you no longer – I think the image speaks for itself…

Note: If you look closely at this panorama, you will notice the silhouettes of container cranes, eerie and surreal. I have written before of the attractiveness that can be found in industrial landscapes in Hell’s Gate.