From a distance, the Brooklyn Bridge is a serene and elegant necklace spanning the East River.

But those who cross the bridge on the narrow path - shared by pedestrians and cyclists - say it's the scene of a daily turf war.

"Move!" a cyclist shouted at a young woman on the wrong side of the divide this week as he whizzed past her in a flash of bright clothing.

There are signs painted on the path denoting which side is for pedestrians and which is for cyclists, but that doesn't stop collisions on the famous bridge, which is crossed by 5,000 people daily.

"I've seen cyclists hit someone several times," said Jason Bremer of Clinton Hill, who rides his bike over the bridge every day to Wall Street. "Or, to avoid someone, they crash."

Cyclists pointed the finger at tourists as the most likely to be walking on the wrong side of the path.

"When you're not local, you don't know which side to walk on," said Susie Mott of England, who was recently taking in the views of the Manhattan skyline from the bridge. "It should be better marked."

Two visitors from Madrid were taking snapshots in the bicycle lane - until told they were in harm's way.

"We live in Spain, so we don't respect these things," said Rodolfo Rosas.

"Maybe they could put up a little barrier between the lanes," his companion Esther Olano offered.

For their part, pedestrians faulted bicyclists for speeding across the bridge at up to 25 mph.

"Sometimes, a gang of men cyclists barrel through here," said Chloe Omaga as she walked to Brooklyn Heights from her Manhattan job. "It feels like they're on a race track. I wish they were more considerate."

Cyclist Barbara Brousal had an answer to that: Just stay on your side of the road and there wouldn't be a problem.

"That's why we're on bikes, because we want to go fast," said Brousal, a teacher at St. Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights.

Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives, a group that promotes biking, said the conflict had actually improved over the past five years because of better signs.

"But it's always going to be an issue," said Budnick, "because New York is extremely crowded, and everybody wants to get to where they're going."