SCENES FROM A RUN: SHEEPSHEAD BAY

Some thirty-three years ago when I first arrived in the U.S., I stayed at an uncle's home in the Brighton Beach area.  It was one subway stop away from the Sheepshead Bay station of whatever train it was at the time, maybe the D.  I was in the area for a very short time as my family soon got our own apartment in the Kingsbridge area of the Bronx.  Somehow the Chinese transliteration of Sheepshead Bay, "羊头湾", which to me really means "Goat's Head Bay", got stuck in my head.  It annoys me much that the Chinese has the same character for goat, the animal with pointy horns and a goatee (duh!), raised mostly for milk, and sheep, the animal with raised mostly for wool, but I digress.

After the Bronx, I moved around a few times but only with the most recent move that I was close to Sheepshead Bay, namely, Bath Beach, which is not to be confused with Bensonhurst.  Still, I did not visit Sheepshead Bay area that often, if at all.  Only last year when my son started to attend school at Bay Academy, right off the Bay itself, that I realized that there was an actual body of water called Sheepshead Bay.  I guess I am too aware of land-fill and such, so that place names sometimes make no sense.  Like how Bath Beach used to have a beach -- it is where the Belt Parkway now exists.  Not so with Sheepshead Bay.  There is still a bay there.  And a lovely foot-bridge traversing it, too.

I recently came across an article at Sheepshead Bites, http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2012/11/in-aftermath-of-sandy-footbridge-gets-much-needed-repairs, and was saddened to see photos of the damage Hurricane Sandy did to the foot-bridge.  I haven't been to the area since the hurricane's visit and made the trip this morning.  I don't know if any repairs have been made but the bridge was still closed.  There were at least two large gaps in the railing.  I was short on time so I only took photos from the Bay Academy side and not from the Manhattan Beach side.

There is a large gap on the western rail.

The bridge is not open to the public.  Orange cones and yellow tape block off the ramp and there is a wooden wall, with a door for officials to go through.

A view of the foot-bridge from the eastern side, more missing railing.  I may be wrong, but I think those horizontal beams close to the water was added after the hurricane.

It's interesting that I just read a blog post by TOTA about feral burros in Oatman, Arizona hanging around tourist hotspots to beg for food.  We don't have such exotic animals in Brooklyn, but these swans did the same thing.  As I approached the fence at the waterfront, they swam over half expecting some food.  I was so jealous of them fowls, just gracefully gliding over the cold water without a care in the world, or at least it appeared so.

This photo has little to do with the bay itself, other than name of the subway station, but it has much to do with a goal which, as a slow long-distance runner, I most likely will never achieve.