Start with what you want out of it
Pick the Brooklyn Bridge if you've never done it, and the Manhattan Bridge if you have. That's the whole decision in one line, and the rest of this page is why.
We get asked about this a lot, because we're a short walk from the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge and people want to know if the famous one is worth the crowds. It is, once. But the two bridges are a ten-minute walk apart on the Brooklyn side, and if you've got half a day you don't have to choose.
The Brooklyn Bridge: the experience, and the crowds
The Brooklyn Bridge is the shorter and more famous walk. The bridge and its approaches run 6,016 feet, with a main span of 1,595.5 feet, and the promenade works out to roughly 1.1 miles. Most people cross it in about 30 minutes, or 35 to 40 with photo stops.
What makes it worth doing is the promenade itself. You walk on wooden planks raised above the traffic, with the cables making that fan pattern overhead and the stone towers coming up in front of you. Nothing else in the city feels like it.
What makes it hard work is everyone else. The middle third, between the towers, is where people stop to take pictures, and on a warm afternoon you spend the crossing weaving. The city keeps the promenade open at all times, which is the fix: go before about 9am and you'll have space, or go after dark when the towers are lit and the walkway thins out.
The Manhattan Bridge: the better photograph
The Manhattan Bridge walk is longer, quieter, and the reason photographers use it. The pedestrian path runs about 1.3 miles along the south side of the bridge, which means you're looking downriver at the Brooklyn Bridge and the harbour the entire way. That view, the whole Brooklyn Bridge in one frame with Lower Manhattan behind it, is the one you cannot get while standing on the Brooklyn Bridge.
It's a plainer walk. You're beside the roadway rather than above it, so it's louder and less romantic, and it climbs a little more: trail listings put it at just under 100 feet of gain over the crossing, and about half an hour to an hour depending on your pace. In exchange you get room to stand still and take your time, which on a Saturday afternoon is worth a lot.
The catch from our side of the river is geography. The Manhattan end sits up in Chinatown, so you're adding a walk or a short subway ride at the start, where the Brooklyn Bridge you can simply walk to from John Street.
Doing both: the loop we'd actually recommend
Walk out of our lobby, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and down into DUMBO. Spend an hour there, get in the water at Brooklyn Bridge Park if it's warm or a coffee if it isn't, then walk north to the Manhattan Bridge and come back over that one with the Brooklyn Bridge in front of you the whole way. You'll land in Chinatown, which means lunch, and you're then a straightforward walk or one subway stop from home.
That's roughly two and a half miles of bridge plus whatever you add on the ground: call it four to five hours with stops. It's the single best free thing you can do from this part of the city, and the reason we like being on this side of the river.
If you only have an hour
Walk out to the first tower of the Brooklyn Bridge and turn around. That's about 15 minutes each way, you'll have seen the cables and the towers and the skyline behind you, and you'll be back for lunch. Skip the far end, where the walk is mostly over the Brooklyn approach roads and the view has already peaked.
Weather and timing
Both bridges are open in the rain and both are exposed. There's no shelter on either crossing, so wind off the harbour in January is the real limit, not distance. Summer afternoons on the Brooklyn Bridge are the crowded extreme. Early morning is better on both counts, and the light is with you.
We keep the kitchen stocked-up sort of stay in mind here: if you're going out early, you can make coffee in your suite and be on the bridge before the tour groups arrive. Come back, shower, and the day has barely started.