The landscapes we see in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" are mainly urban landscapes, but they are described in a way that emphasizes their connection to nature and to timelessness, rather than suggests that they are antithetical to nature. Brooklyn is described in terms of its "ample hills," while the "streets of Manhattan island" are depicted in concert with the waters surrounding the island in which the speaker has bathed. These urban landscapes are loved and are made less urban by their connection to water and natural features. While the streets of Manhattan may change, Whitman offers a perspective on them which imagines their continued existence ages and ages into the future, when people will still surely be crossing Brooklyn Ferry and seeing the same water landscape around them. This, Whitman suggests, connects the people of now to the people of the future and the past as they all marvel in the same way at the world around them.
The ferry, then, can be seen to represent a means of transport -- which it literally is -- but also a means of transport between different points in time. Much as the ferry moves crowds of people from point A to point B, it also moves people out of their own limited existence and into a world where they can appreciate the nature around them, and also understand that they are akin to people seeing the same sights in other points in time.
Though Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a rather long and expansive poem, there is not a huge variety of landscape described. Whitman mentions the clouds, the sun, and the hills that he sees from the ferry, but never in much detail. Likewise, he describes Brooklyn and Manhattan vaguely, more often describing the experience of living in the boroughs among other people. The river itself and the adjoining shores are the landscapes Whitman focuses on most throughout the poem.
His most vivid and passionate description of the landscape comes in section 11:
Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!
Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg’d waves!
Gorgeous clouds of the sun-set! drench with your splendor me, or the men and women generations after me. (111–113)
These lines also reflect the role nature plays in the poem. The river is continuously flowing, as it always has been and always will be. It represents infinite time, something Whitman travels through and sees as beautiful and wonderful.
The ferry plays the most important role in the poem. While Whitman describes literally riding the ferry and observing the other passengers, figuratively, the ferry allows him to journey along the infinite river of time. While on the ferry, he is able to see all those who have come before him and all those who have yet to come. He sees what they see and is able to connect with them and love them. It is through the ferry that Whitman experiences the transcendental connection to all of mankind.
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