It was the largest number of arrests during an Occupy protest and was one of the largest mass arrests since the 2004 Republican National Convention protests. There was controversy over the tactics used by police, who did not actively prevent the marchers from walking to the bridge roadway but then conducted a mass arrest a few hundred feet up the Manhattan side of the bridge while others on the narrow pedestrian walkway watched from above.

One week earlier, the Occupy movement had held a protest march near Union Square where the large numbers of protesters brought attention to the group and the NYPD's use of mesh nets to corral protesters into makeshift pens. Just south of Union Square, eyewitness video showed a group of young women being sprayed with pepper spray while on the sidewalk, which brought worldwide press coverage and criticism of the NYPD's handling of the growing protest group.

The Occupy camp in Zuccotti Park would be cleared a month and a half later but the group would continue various protest demonstrations through the next year.