A Lifeform In Northern Ireland: A Ride on the Roosevelt Island Tramway

Queensboro Bridge and Roosevelt Island Tramway New York City

Time travelling back into our US adventure earlier in the year. On Monday 13th February, we headed from Brooklyn to Roosevelt Island so we could cross back into Manhattan. Roosevelt Island is a long, thin island (approx 200 meters wide and 2km long) sat neatly in the middle of the East River between Manhattan and Long Island, it's a small island yet home to over 9,500 people. With a huge bridge - the Queensboro Bridge - looming over part of the island, it does seem an in-between sort of place to be. We arrived on the island underground on the subway but our way off the island was via the famous Roosevelt Island Tram.

With the weekly MetroCards we'd bought to get us around the city during our stay, we'd been pleasantly surprised when planning our itinerary to find out that you can also ride the aerial tramway with it. Luckily the weather was dry and bright on the day we were there so we got a great view. However, before we hung out with a few other tourists and commuters 70m above the East River, we found some feathery friends enjoying the winter sun and stopped to watch them for a while.

The island seemed fairly relaxed compared to the bustle of the streets just the other side of the river but apart from the lack of activity on the streets we didn't see much else, we had a long day ahead planned, so we made our way into the station where we looked up and waited for the next tram car to descend.

After taking a seat we glued our faces to the slightly mucky windows and watched out of the window as the car lifted us up and over the river.

It was a nice view of the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island

East River from the Roosevelt Island Tramway

The downside to it is that it was soon over as it is just a short ride of approximately 1km, but the good side is that it is a really nice way to travel and takes you as far over land as it does over water.

The other station is a couple of avenues across into the city on 2nd Avenue which is fun as you get to drift over the roads and watch the world pass by below.