Eastern Parkway is a major
boulevardBoulevard has several generally accepted meanings. It was first introduced in the French language in 1435 as boloard and has since been altered into boulevard....
that runs through a portion of the
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
boroughNew York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is segmented into five boroughs. A borough is a unique form of government that administers the five fundamental constituent parts of the consolidated city...
of
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
. The road begins at
Grand Army PlazaGrand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York is an 11-acre oval plaza that forms the main entrance to Prospect Park. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1867. It consists of concentric rings arranged as streets, with the outer ring being named Plaza Street...
and extends east, running parallel to
Atlantic AvenueAtlantic Avenue is an important street in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. It stretches from the Brooklyn waterfront along the East River all the way to Jamaica, Queens...
, along the crest of the
moraineA moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past ice age. This debris may have been plucked off the valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
that separates northern from southern Long Island, to Ralph Avenue. There, it turns to the northeast, still following the moraine, until it terminates at
Evergreen CemeteryThe Cemetery of the Evergreens is a non-denominational cemetery in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, colloquially called Evergreen Cemetery. It was incorporated in 1849, not long after the passage of New York's Rural Cemetery Act spurred development of cemeteries outside Manhattan...
where the moraine takes a steep climb towards a peak at
Ridgewood ReservoirRidgewood Reservoir is a decommissioned 19th century reservoir that sits on the Brooklyn-Queens border and is part of Highland Park. The reservoir and park are bounded on the north by the Jackie Robinson Parkway, on the south by Highland Boulevard, on the west by Vernon Place and on the east by...
.
The section between Grand Army Plaza and Ralph Avenue consists of a central bidirectional avenue of six lanes, two small parallel side streets, and several
mediansA tree lawn, also called by a variety of dialectical names including sidewalk buffer, boulevard, berm, verge, nature strip, utility strip, planting strip, parkway, or devil's strip , is a small area, often planted with trees and grass, between a street and the sidewalk of that street...
with trees, benches, and paths for pedestrians and cyclists.
Eastern Parkway is a major
boulevardBoulevard has several generally accepted meanings. It was first introduced in the French language in 1435 as boloard and has since been altered into boulevard....
that runs through a portion of the
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
boroughNew York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is segmented into five boroughs. A borough is a unique form of government that administers the five fundamental constituent parts of the consolidated city...
of
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
. The road begins at
Grand Army PlazaGrand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York is an 11-acre oval plaza that forms the main entrance to Prospect Park. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1867. It consists of concentric rings arranged as streets, with the outer ring being named Plaza Street...
and extends east, running parallel to
Atlantic AvenueAtlantic Avenue is an important street in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. It stretches from the Brooklyn waterfront along the East River all the way to Jamaica, Queens...
, along the crest of the
moraineA moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past ice age. This debris may have been plucked off the valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
that separates northern from southern Long Island, to Ralph Avenue. There, it turns to the northeast, still following the moraine, until it terminates at
Evergreen CemeteryThe Cemetery of the Evergreens is a non-denominational cemetery in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, colloquially called Evergreen Cemetery. It was incorporated in 1849, not long after the passage of New York's Rural Cemetery Act spurred development of cemeteries outside Manhattan...
where the moraine takes a steep climb towards a peak at
Ridgewood ReservoirRidgewood Reservoir is a decommissioned 19th century reservoir that sits on the Brooklyn-Queens border and is part of Highland Park. The reservoir and park are bounded on the north by the Jackie Robinson Parkway, on the south by Highland Boulevard, on the west by Vernon Place and on the east by...
.
The section between Grand Army Plaza and Ralph Avenue consists of a central bidirectional avenue of six lanes, two small parallel side streets, and several
mediansA tree lawn, also called by a variety of dialectical names including sidewalk buffer, boulevard, berm, verge, nature strip, utility strip, planting strip, parkway, or devil's strip , is a small area, often planted with trees and grass, between a street and the sidewalk of that street...
with trees, benches, and paths for pedestrians and cyclists. The bike paths are part of the
Brooklyn-Queens GreenwayThe Brooklyn-Queens Greenway is a bicycling and pedestrian path connecting parks and roads in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, connecting Coney Island in the south to Fort Totten in the north, on Long Island Sound...
, which runs through Prospect Park to
Ocean ParkwayThe Ocean Parkway is a long state parkway that traverses Jones Beach Island between Jones Beach State Park and Captree State Park on Long Island, New York. The Ocean Parkway begins at the southern terminus of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, intersects the south end of the Wantagh State Parkway, and...
and east through
Forest Park (Queens)Forest Park is an urban forest, one of the natural treasures of the New York City borough of Queens. It has an area of 538 acres . The park is operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.-History:...
. East of Ralph Avenue, the
parkwayIn the United States, Parkways are defined as follows:#A type of road##A broad landscaped thoroughfare; especially : one from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded.##A roadway in a park : a landscaped thoroughfare connecting parks...
is reduced to four lanes, heading in a northeasterly direction towards the
Jackie Robinson ParkwayThe Jackie Robinson Parkway is a parkway in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York. The western terminus of the parkway is at Jamaica Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. It runs through Highland Park, along the north side of Ridgewood Reservoir, and...
.
According to the
New York City Department of Parks and RecreationThe City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation is the department of government of the City of New York responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecological diversity of the city's natural areas, and furnishing recreational opportunities for city's...
's description of Eastern Parkway:
The world's first parkway was conceived by Frederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, landscape designer and father of American landscape architecture, famous for designing many well-known urban parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City...
and Calvert VauxCalvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
in 1866. The term parkwayIn the United States, Parkways are defined as follows:#A type of road##A broad landscaped thoroughfare; especially : one from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded.##A roadway in a park : a landscaped thoroughfare connecting parks...
was coined by these designers as a landscaped road built expressly for 'pleasure-riding and driving' or scenic access to Prospect ParkProspect Park is a 585-acre public park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn located between Park Slope, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden...
(also designed by Olmsted and Vaux). To these ends, commerce was restricted. The parkway was constructed from Grand Army Plaza to Ralph Avenue (the boundary of the City of Brooklyn) between 1870 and 1874. Olmsted and Vaux intended Eastern Parkway to be the Brooklyn nucleus of an interconnected park and parkway system for the New York area. The plan was never completed but their idea of bringing the countryside into the city influenced the construction of major parks and parkways in cities throughout the United States.
The success of the special statutory commercial restrictions on this and other urban parkways inspired later, more general
zoningZoning is a device of land use regulation used by local governments in most developed countries . The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
schemes in New York and elsewhere. The parkway was planned as an important urban design element to create an amenity for a good neighborhood.
Like some later roads on
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City, and two of which are mainly suburban...
, Eastern Parkway was designed to use land that was idle because it was high, rocky, and unsuited to farming. The presence of the road, however, made the area residentially desirable for people whose income derived from elsewhere. Thus it became inhabited in the next few decades, while land on slopes to the south and north continued to be used for farms into the 20th century, when the
IRT Eastern Parkway LineIRT Eastern Parkway Line and New Lots Line can refer to:* IRT Eastern Parkway Line* IRT New Lots Line...
subway was built under the parkway.
In addition to Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park, other attractions and notable buildings along Eastern Parkway include the
Brooklyn Public LibraryThe Brooklyn Public Library is the public library system of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is the fifth largest public library system in the United States...
central branch, the
Brooklyn MuseumThe Brooklyn Museum, located at 200 Eastern Parkway, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, is the second-largest art museum in New York City, and one of the largest in the United States. Arnold L...
, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens,
770 Eastern Parkway770 Eastern Parkway is the street address of the central headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, located on Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, in the United States of America.-History:...
,
Zion TriangleZion Park is a small park in the Brownsville, Brooklyn section of Brooklyn, New York notable for the Brownsville War Memorial. The Memorial to the fallen of the First World War was created by sculptor Charles Cary Rumsey and dedicated in 1925. The bas relief sculptures are mounted on a limestone...
and the
Jewish Children's MuseumThe Jewish Children's Museum is the largest Jewish-themed children's museum in the United States. It aims for children of all faiths and backgrounds to gain a positive perspective and awareness of the Jewish heritage, fostering tolerance and understanding...
. The parkway is the route of the West Indian Day Parade, a festive annual celebration taking place around Labor Day.