The 5 Best Public Piers in Brooklyn
The 69th Street Pier
Technically, this Bay Ridge spot is called the “American Veterans Memorial Pier,” but no one ever calls it that. It sports the borough’s 9/11 memorial: a relatively short obelisk with a bowl-shaped top that shines a beam of light out every anniversary. But most of the time it’s just a place where fishermen hang out and fish; by day, they’re joined by cyclists and families making a day of it; by night, young lovers and tipplers. I used to drink beers here as a younger man, because the police never seemed to drive out there, and the one time they did they didn’t hassle anyone, unlike in the nearby parks. My favorite memory here is seeing at night a small commotion around one of the fisherman before he dropped a shark to the ground, which looked like a tiny replica of Jaws, two or three feet long. Then he threw it back, but you could still feel the excitement on that pier for the rest of the night. [photo]