Pearl St, Lower East Side

There's not really much to say about Pearl street on this stretch outside of public stuff. Pearl only runs a couple of blocks within the neighborhood and it's kind of through no-man's land.
There's a high school on the corner of Pearl and Madison that looks like a prison. It's hideous and really ominous and I can only imagine how creeped out the little kids are that have to walk into it every day. The end of that block houses another hideous building, the Bell Atlantic. It was a phone company building and I, honestly, have no idea what it is now aside from ugly. And, across the street from the Bell building is a public housing project called Al Smith Houses. The end of that block was the first address of John Jacob Astor but there is definitely nothing left of an Astor kind of vibe in this part of town.
Once you cross Wagner, you hit the Brooklyn Bridge and Pearl is done in this neighborhood. The Brooklyn Bridge really is a sight to behold, though. I walked across it my first week in New York and it really is magical if you can avoid having the bejeezus scared out of you by bikers whizzing past you at 80 miles per hour. It's really a gorgeous bridge with a gorgeous and was built at the price of sixteen people dying during its construction (plus, twelve people dying in a stampede during its opening). I highly recommend a walk across it . . . to get yourself off of Pearl and out of this neighborhood.