A Slice Of Brooklyn Neighborhood Tour - Part 1

If you've been reading my blog for awhile you might remember when I went on Tony Muia's very enjoyable "A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour" last April. Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to accompany him on his " A Slice Of Brooklyn Neighborhood Tour."

This 3 1/2 hour comfotable coach bus tour through Brooklyn includes an audio-visual historical tour of Brooklyn's famous movie locations, landmarks and points of interests, and includes a stop at the famous Junior' s Restaurant...a Brooklyn landmark since 1950, where we were promised a sample of the BEST cheesecake and a classic egg cream! Although I am a life long Brooklynite, I knew I'd learn many new things about my hometown, since Tony is a fact filled and engaging tour host.

Our first stop was at Brooklyn Bridge Park , located under the Manhattan Bridge. While still under construction in many places, the future 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park will stretch 1.3 miles along the East River from north of the Manhattan Bridge to Atlantic Avenue.

(click on all photos to enlarge)

We were able to walk under The Manhattan Bridge which crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Brooklyn at Flatbush Avenue Extension to lower Manhattan at Canal Street. The bridge was opened in 1909 and carries both vehicular traffic and subway trains. It is quite an experience to be underneath and hear the roar of the subway pass over head!

The neighborhood near the bridge on the Brooklyn side is becoming gentrified from it's former factories and warehouses into condominiums and stores, and is called DUMBO, an acronym for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass." We road along some of it's narrow cobble stoned streets during the tour.

From the Brooklyn Bridge Park we had spectacular views of The Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan. This is a view I never tire of!

The Brooklyn Bridge one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States, and stretches 5,989 feet over the East River, connecting the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, and carries motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles. It opened in 1883 and took 14 years to build. At that time the bridge's giant towers stood taller than anything in the New York skyline, even taller than any structure in North America! It was designed by John A. Robling, an immigrant from Germany. His son, Washington Robling, was it's builder. Washington Robling's wife, Emily Warren Robling, served as his unofficial assistant engineer when he was incapacitated late in the construction by collapsing bridge timbers which crushed his legs. Due to her efforts to complete the construction of the bridge she ranks among the most remarkable women of her time!

The tour then drove us to the Fulton Ferry Landing pier where we had more breathtaking views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Lower Manhattan skyline.

This is one of the most popular sites for photography in New York City. It is at this location that Robert Fulton, who invented the first steamboat ferry in 1814 , had his ferry called "The Nassau," which carried passengers across the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan. A bronze plaque in the pier states that by 1868 there were one thousand ferry crossings daily, and 50 million passengers were carried annually until the ferries closed in 1924.

The plaque on this rock commemorates that fact that under the cover of darkness on August 29th, 1776, Washington's army crossed the East River from Fulton Ferry, below where the Brooklyn Bridge rises today, leaving Brooklyn to the British during The Battle Of Brooklyn, the first battle of the Revolutionary War. (right click the photo to enlarge to read the inscription)

The tour again boarded the bus and drove over to the nearby charming Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. This neighborhood dates back to 1824, and is largely composed of block after block of picturesque Greek Revival and Gothic Revival houses, and Italianate brownstones and mansions. More than 500 buildings were built before the Civil War. Brooklyn Heights was the first neighborhood protected by the 1965 Landmarks Preservation Law of New York City.

We proceeded down to The Brooklyn Promenade, which is a third-of-a-mile stretch park on an esplanade above the the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. This exclusively pedestrian walkway offers more majestic views of downtown Manhattan and is lined with flowerbeds, playgrounds, and two rows of benches, the park is a favorite destination for walkers and joggers.

The Promenade, actually an esplanade, cantilevered over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is a favorite spot among locals, offering magnificent vistas of the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline across the East River, as well as views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. It is a popular tourist destination for the Macy's July 4th fireworks, and for the unobstructed views of the skyline.

The quiet, neat, tree lined streets of Brooklyn Heights were so enjoyable to walk through, and allowed us to stop to admire the beautiful architecture up close.

Tony stopped at a few residences along the way to inform us of who lived there at one time.

This is 142 Columbia Heights. The iconic New York writer Norman Mailer, who was a 2 time Pulitzer Prize winning author, and who started The Village Voice newspaper in Greenwich Village, lived here until his death in 2007.

Next, we passed 70 Willow Street, which is an enchanting Greek Revival style home dating from the 1830s. Truman Capote lived in the basement here during the late 50's and early 60's, where he wrote the novels "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

We also passed this 1829 red brick corner house at 19 Cranberry Street, which was used as the location for the 1987 Cher/Nicholas Cage film "Moonstruck." You can see the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims at 75 Hicks Street, built in 1849, where Henry Ward Beecher was once considered "The Most Famous Man in America." The preacher and abolitionist’s church was also “the Grand Central depot” of the Underground Railroad. Henry Ward Beecher was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin."



Now we were all ready to drive down Flatbush Ave to DeKalb Avenue to visit Junior's to have some refreshment! Founded in 1950 by Harry Rosen, this landmark restaurant is known to have the best cheesecake in New York City!

As part of the tour we went inside and were served a slice of their rich, creamy and delicious cheesecake.

It was so good quite a few of the tour participants bought a whole cheesecake to take home with them!

We were also treated to our choice of a chocolate or vanilla egg cream, which is a traditional Brooklyn refreshment invented in the 1920's when the city was full of soda fountain establishments.

Tony explained that an egg cream contains no egg or cream, but is composed of a splash of milk, seltzer soda and Fox's U Bet chocolate syrup.

It was almost as good as the ones I remembered drinking as a child!

I know I've shown many of these sights in past blog posts, but I hope you enjoyed seeing them again as part of The Slice of Brooklyn Neighborhood Tour.

In my next blog post of part two of the tour I'll show you many more new and interesting and historical places we visited on the tour such as Grand Army Plaza, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Dodgers Ebbets Field location, and many many more fabulous Brooklyn sights!