RFK Bridge

In New York City, professional sports is as popular a conversation topic as pizza or the weather. Home to some of the greatest dynasties and underdog stories alike, we'll tackle three boroughs this week to visit their home fields. We start at the Barclays Center to visit the Nets and Islanders, then cross the Manhattan bridge to visit "The World's Most Famous Arena," Madison Square Garden, home to the Knicks and Rangers. Next is a long walk to the Bronx to visit the world's most successful professional sports franchise, the New York Yankees. We conclude with a trip to Queens to visit those lovable losers of Citi Field, the New York Mets.

Our last movie-focused walk is also our first in our home stretch of special walks covering multiple boroughs at a time. Here we draw inspiration from the 2002 Spike Lee film "25th Hour" and the Edward Norton monologue contained within called "F*ck New York." In it, Norton's character Montgomery Brogan rails against the people and neighborhoods that make this city what it is. We'll visit as much as we can of the soliloquy, from Chelsea to Wall Street, Bensonhurst, Alphabet City and everything in between.

Few major thoroughfares define its surroundings as strongly as the section of I-278 known as the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. This week we'll follow the entirety of its path, starting at the foot of the RFK bridge in Astoria and concluding at the base of the Verrazzano. Neighborhoods along the way include Woodside, Sunnyside, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and more.

Our walk this week traverses the many bridges that connect Manhattan to all parts east. Starting with the Ed Koch/Queensboro bridge, we snake through Randalls Island before systematically tackling the nine bridges that connect Upper Manhattan to the Bronx. Not included in this map due to route revision constraints are both the walk over the Third Avenue Bridge and the 2.5 miles from Henry Hudson Park to the train at 181st Street.

This walk starts a two week quest to tackle the north shore of Queens. Crossing through Blissville, we border Newtown creek before meeting the East River and heading north through Hunters Point, Dutch Kills and Astoria. Taking a right at Ditmars Steinway, we hit the tip of Willets Point and head back down through the meat of the borough.

Our survey of Northwest Queens starts with a walk through Ridgewood, cutting across cemetery territory to walk up the coast of Hunter's Point, Dutch Kills and Astoria. We sweep by LaGuardia airport and tag the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Park before cutting across Jackson Heights and down through Sunnyside and Maspeth.