Protesters clamoring to move past barricades near the bridge.

When Occupy Wall Street began on Sept. 17. On Thursday night, during the celebration of the Occupy Wall Street movement’s two-month anniversary, media swarmed downtown to capture the protest of over 32,000 occupiers.

NYPD keeping the crowd in check against a sign that reads "Power to the People."

In the wake of Bloomberg’s abrupt eviction orders and the police storming of Zuccotti Park, tensions between protesters and law enforcement seemed to be at an all-time high.

“What was happening in Zuccotti Park was providing a social service net for those who fell through the cracks. If they interfere with providing basic needs, then they are committing an act of violence through deprivation,” Tameron Josbeck, an unemployed engineer, said.

99% projected onto a building as protesters walk towards Brooklyn Bridge.

Though most protesters expressed similarly angry responses to New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Zuccotti Park eviction actions, some believed that this eviction would re-energized the movement. “On the one hand, he’s allowed people to protest for a month or two,” Danny Ross, former federal employee, said. “But on the other hand, when he shuts it down as he did the other day, he has actually re-enthused the base of the movement.”

The alleged injustice of Bloomberg’s eviction orders was not the only draw to the growing movement. The impending tuition hikes at CUNY public colleges, which are expected to be formally announced by the CUNY system on Nov. 21, presented another major cause for young protesters to latch onto.     

One group of protesters as they make their way onto the Brooklyn Bridge.

Despite fury over Bloomberg’s actions and the brewing discontent over the rising cost of public education, the overall mood of the protests was more festive than anything else. As protesters poured onto the Brooklyn Bridge, they spontaneously broke into songs like "We're not Gonna Take It", and also occasionally a "Happy Birthday" ode to OWS.

Scattered amongst the throngs of Brooklyn Bridge protesters were tiny white “candles” that were sporadically distributed amongst marchers. They represented the “Festival of Lights” that the occupiers used to celebrate their anniversary.

At their two-month mark, OWS seems to finally have hit their stride with a more mainstream audience. Protesters received much moral support in the form of honking, from passersby on the highway as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. Many stopped to wave, while some even started to chant, “join us!”

The very fact that Occupy Wall Street can now rally and call observers to join them presents in itself an enormous step forward. “There are very few times in American history where everyone from all walks of life get together and form one uniform body.” Pse Filpo, a veteran marine of 15 years, said. “This is right up there with Martin Luther King’s march to D.C., as far as I’m concerned.”

Even with the movement's seemingly endless endurance, occupiers seem to cling to a sense of unpredictability. “I don’t think anybody knows [what’s going to happen] which is sort of the excitement,” Ross said. According to him, the hardest challenge lies in not allowing the movement to lose steam from here on out. “It’s also why we have to keep at it. Because there’s momentum that’s been built, and we don’t continue and build upon [it], then the whole thing will fall apart."