Dashane Santana, the 12-year-old girl who was struck and killed by a minivan crossing Delancey Street yesterday had dreams of attending Juilliard and becoming an actress. "She was a loving little girl—that was my girl," Santana's mother, Shamika Benjamin told the Post. Benjamin seemed to confirm the accounts of two witnesses who said that Santana was held up in the middle of the street as the traffic light turned green. "She was crossing the street when she dropped her bookbag." Police have not charged the 58-year-old driver of the van, and are deeming the tragedy an accident. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] A 13-year-old girl is dead after being run over at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan. The unidentified sixth grader was hit around 2:30 p.m., and the FDNY tells us she was in cardiac arrest when they arrived on scene at Clinton Street and Delancey. She was rushed to New York Downtown Hospital, where she was pronounced D.O.A. The NYPD press office did not have any information about the accident yet, but there were reports of heavy traffic backups on the bridge. more ›

The 34-year-old woman who lept off the Williamsburg bridge yesterday and landed on the windshield of an SUV was conscious and talking at Bellevue Hospital. According to the Daily News, Jenna Marie Filippi of Queens stopped her car on the east side of the bridge and jumped down 20-30 feet to Pitt Street below. "I thought it was a rag doll," crossing guard Aida Mercado, who was 20 feet away, tells DNAinfo. "I couldn't even talk. I was just pointing." more ›

A 34-year-old woman has jumped off the Williamsburg Bridge, landing on the street below. According to the FDNY, a call came in around 2:34 this afternoon detailing that the woman had landed on Pitt Street, and suffered "multiple trauma" before being transported to Bellevue Hospital. We'll update as more information becomes available. more ›

Remember way back in July, when limber pranksters Seanna Sharpe and Savage Skinner scaled the Williamsburg Bridge for a death-defying acrobatic routine 300 feet in the air? Remember how they were then arrested and charged with criminal trespassing felonies for the little act? Well, aspiring acrobats, take heart, for Sharpe and Skinner are considered felons no more! more ›

So you've been given the job of being a "pedestrian safety manager" on one of the city's Brooklyn/Manhattan bridges. From now until November 26 you have the fun duty of trying to bring peace between the bikers and walkers going over the spans between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays (noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays). What do you think your hourly salary is? more ›

Bad news for people who already walk home holding their keys in the "stab the assailant" position: a woman's bag was stolen at gunpoint on the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge's bike path early Tuesday morning, the Brooklyn Paper reports. Around 12:29 a.m., the suspect approached the woman on a bike and ordered her to "Give me your bag. What's in your hand?" She complied, and then the suspect told her to "Be quiet!" and run towards Manhattan as he continued into Brooklyn. It appears that criminals are discovering the merits of cycling with alacrity. more ›

Two girls, ages 16 and 17, and a 16-year-old boy were nabbed by police for climbing the Williamsburg Bridge at around 6 a.m. this morning. A rep from the NYPD tells us that the teens were "climbing high up on the beams and hanging over ledges." In all fairness, it's probably the coolest place in town to play spin the bottle. more ›

It's the end of the month, which means it's time for the NYPD to get cracking on filling those ticket quotas which have been lying around all month. Can't just keep going after dead people, sometimes you gotta get them while they're still breathing! To that end, a reader wrote us that cops have been pulling over cars on the Williamsburg Bridge for the past two days to give tickets to people with tinted windshields. Read his account below: more ›

Oh dear, it looks like there's a bit of a traffic jam on the Williamsburg Bridge, and we're too late to exit! No sweat, we'll just hang a hard right, jump the curb, drive on the sidewalk, cut through the bike path, and go to Dram tonight instead of Cienfuegos. Hey look, we're not the only geniuses with this bright idea! And ha, some guy's videotaping. Whatever! more ›

Acrobat Seanna Sharpe and magician Thomas "Savage" Skinner performed a dangerous, risky stunt atop the Williamsburg Bridge last Monday evening, and were promptly arrested and charged with felony reckless endangerment. The couple now faces seven years in jail, but their attorney is invoking the case of Philippe Petit, the man who walked between the twin towers in 1974 and had his charges dropped, as precedent to set his clients free. "In the spirit of this great city, my hope is that the district attorney will look at it as the artistic act that it was," their lawyer Wylie Stecklow tells the Daily News. more ›

Earlier this week, acrobat Seanna Sharpe and magician Thomas "Savage" Skinner shocked and awed audiences with a daredevil acrobat stunt atop the Williamsburg Bridge. Naturally, the duo was arrested mere moments after setting foot back upon solid ground, and now, Sharpe speaks out about her charges. more ›

Earlier today we received a cryptic email alerting us to something called "Risk Life for Flight" happening during rush hour on the Williamsburg Bridge. The alert was mysterious, saying: "For anyone inspired by Philippe Petite there will be a stupid, illegal, and probably beautiful aerial stunt happening on the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge tonight." We've got a staffer over there now documenting the crazy scene, and will have a full post tomorrow—but for now, did you witness an acrobat hanging over the bridge on your way home? Send in your accounts and photos. According to people on the scene, acrobats have been swinging on ribbons sans safety nets or harnesses, and cops are currently flooding the bridge. more ›

Two men, aged 22 and 25, were arrested in the wee hours of the morning today for attempting to climb the Williamsburg bridge, claiming they wanted to take pictures. Police Chief Ray Kelly described James Stafford and Brice Farrell, who were from Connecticut and Maryland, respectively, as "urban explorers," a rare species previously spotted scaling the same bridge back in 2003. more ›

It's going to be a tight squeeze for cyclists and walkers on the Williamsburg Bridge starting June 13th, when the DOT will block off the south side pedestrian path for six weeks in order to install new roadblocks at the entrance near South Sixth Street. The roadblocks are intended to "prevent small cars from plowing through the entrance to the bridge’s cycle path," the Brooklyn Paper reports; we imagine they'll resemble the bollards that were recently raised on both sides of the Manhattan Bridge bike entrance. more ›

The Williamsburg Bridge hasn't exactly gotten a lot of screen time compared to New York City's other, more photogenic bridges. Tonight, however, your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man will return to the bridge for another night of filming (when they were there last week the lights could be seen from far away... according to this photo, at least a mile). It's unclear what they'll be shooting on the bridge, but hopefully it's more than just Peter Parker brooding, as he recently did at a shoot in Woodside, Queens: more ›

We just received word over the wire that "Harbor & Aviation are conducting a water search for a white male with a beard and wearing a black jacket who jumped into the East River" from the Williamsburg Bridge. more ›

Ever want to explore the underside of the infrastructure of the greatest city in the world without, y'know, going down there? Got half an hour? Last summer Andrew Wonder and Steve Duncan went on a tour of the city's less visited attractions with trips to the abandoned City Hall station, New York's first sewer on Canal Street and the Lincoln tunnel and the results have just come online. So sit back at your desk and go vicariously run from trains while avoiding the third rail! Spot century-old footprints underground! Meet the nice folks you find down there! Climb a tower of the Williamsburg Bridge! All without actually going anywhere. more ›

As if the trains didn't have enough trouble, last night an idiot went and decided it would be a fun idea to walk on the train tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge. The track-walker started trekking down the tracks around 12:25 a.m. bringing the J train to a halt. He was soon nabbed by cops and service resumed a little after one a.m.. Why the man chose to walk on the tracks when the trains were finally running again, we have no idea. Perhaps that is why he has been taken to Woodhull Hospital for psychiatric observation? more ›

A contractor working on the Williamsburg bridge was crushed and killed by a mechanical lift on Thursday afternoon, and officials have launched an investigation into the incident. Jerry Burgess, 50, had been on the mechanical lift when it got stuck, and he and another worker attempted to reactivate the mechanical platform. The Daily News says it is "unclear what happened next," but the platform moved and pinned Burgess between the lift and the metal supports of the bridge. He died later at Bellevue Hospital. Burgess worked for Skanska Koch, which was contracted by the Department of Transportation to paint and do repair work on the bridge. more ›

As previously reported, the DOT is implementing some long-overdue changes to the bike-pedestrian paths on the Williamsburg Bridge. The paths, which have become increasingly crowded and dangerous due to the city's cycling boom, are being altered so that walkers and bikers will each have their own side, like on the Manhattan Bridge. The work is beginning today, with the complete closure of the south side path. Then it's on to the sinister "Phase 2"! more ›

Now that Colonial Williamsburg has already applied to get Google's high-speed broadband service, BP Marty Markowitz is stepping up Brooklyn's game in the country-wide competition. In a press release issued Friday, he renamed the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges the "Wi-Fi" and Broadband bridges. Though he doesn't officially name Google, he says he is committing to "advancing Brooklyn’s “coming of digital age” so that everyone throughout the borough can go adventuring on the information superhighway." The "information superhighway" shut down around 1997, but the enthusiasm is still there. He also proclaimed Friday "Broadband for All in Brooklyn, USA" Day. You know what would really send your message loud and clear, Marty? A twitter account! more ›

It's almost like state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. is trying to piss people off. Less than a year after he helped kill the plan for East River bridge tolls and claimed the idea was "fundamentally wrong," the Democratic majority leader says he would like to revive East River Bridge tolls as a way to generate revenue for the cash-strapped MTA. more ›

Yesterday around 4 p.m. word came in on the newswire that there was a "motorcycle down" on, or just before, the Williamsburg Bridge—towards the Manhattan side. Shortly after an update came in saying the accident was fatal. There aren't many details beyond those available yet, but eyewitnesses say the motorcycle was actually a Vespa, and it was hit (and totaled) by a black car. The Vespa driver is the one who died, and URB Magazine reports it was deejay Josh Link (friends are confirming on Twitter). Many witnessed the scene, which has been described as bloody, and one even posted their thoughts on Craigslist, noting that late last night there were burning candles where the crash happened. UPDATE: It has been confirmed that Josh Link was the victim in this sad accident, and services will be held on Long Island tomorrow. more ›