barry lewis talks about the construction of the brooklyn bridge. why manhattan needed it and how transportation in the city. he new york historical society hosted this event. ms. gregory: we are thrilled to welcome barry lewis back to new historical society. he's an architectural historian specializes in european and american architecture of the centuries.th he is best known throughout new york for the series of video tours presented by channel 13 including the emmy nominated shows 42nd street, broadway and harlem. lecture d at numerous vienna views including columbia. university university of pennsylvania and

graduatean and harvard school of architecture. we always like to ask everyone off cell phones and beepers and now let's give barry lewis a warm welcome. you. don't need wis: i that. you know me. i'm all over the stage. interesting i had people talking to me about the lecture. about theally talking whreubrooklyn bridge ands as brooklyn. new york would never admit it needed rooklyn but it it. again, just in case people were series of three lectures i did the first one bout a month ago and in recouping that remember new york and staten island becomes a by the 1820's and

180's. in phafrpblt and 1875 one manhattan island. that is called growth. 1860's upper left is an print of the built up part of manhattan and new york. those days new york city feels manhattan island and when river you ross the were in the independent city of brooklyn. by the time you get to the 1860's the bridge will begin in 1869. reason it was needed by the ime you get to the late 1860's downtown new york is the central business district of new york 180 waste.ica by by 1900's it is the c.b.d. of world. that means new york is growing. but unfortunately man-to-man is skinny island and the only way to grow is uptown and y the time you get to the 1860's the time the bridge will

peoplet the middle class are forced to live as far as 50's and central park. they have to commute to walt and -- wall street and women commute to the madison square and all that commute is done with horse cars. it is great in disney world but f you have been to depend on them they were horrible. an idea of the traffic. that is madison square on the fifth avenue and broadway and look at that backup of horse cars. headed to wall street that is another three miles. you think commutation today is awful. it was awful then. when you got downtown on the a cartoon of what was the busiest intersection in america and one of the busiest world. that is broadway and fulton st.

church which is still there. there is the u.s. post office today.is not there the preservationists saw over noon t that stood until park road that is toward the brooklyn bridge. chicago on the right. that was the middle of the loop and nobody is going anywhere fast. the problem was the street systems could not take all the people. everybody is piled on to the street and you had to get people off the street. one way or another. mentioned last week what we call brooklyn today is kings county. originally that was six separate towns. they were founded by the dump and recognized by the english them.rooklyn was one of it was the closest to new york and new york was the economic

beginning in ica -- 183 to r 0's. brooklyn ld live in you were across from the central business district. this is important to remember wall street ink of as the financial district but it is c.b.d. and all you had to do cross that river and you would have a wonderful neighborhood to live in. if you know brooklyn you can realize if you think about there across from the c.b.d. central business district were middle class row neighborhoods of the 19th begins most rooklyn heights and expensive. as you fan out from brooklyn harold gardens, couple hill. slope. top of prospect heights and these were fine middle class

the borhoods to serve people who worked in the c.b.d. around wall street. 1850's brooklyn annexed williamsburg and rest of old town of bushwick. across from? area it wound up being the cross from anhattan from the lower east side which was becoming the main immigrant district of the city. immigrants lower east side urban district in the world and you have immigrants in new york and they in tenementsgether looking across the river and the g why aren't we on other side? that included my grandparents 1910 and wound up in williamsburg which is where my father was born. immigrants basically came to williamsburg. ed n brooklyn annex e williamsburg and bushwick they addition.the aoereastern

i never understood why. i thought it was on the north side but they called it the addition and that eastern addition, because of its the lower east side the immigrant section of new got that eastern addition the spillover from the other east side from williamsburg and green point. is a map of the neighborhoods. from williamsburg and green into bushwicklled which is what is going on now with the young people. and they spilled -- sorry. into pilled over williamsburg and green point and bushwick, east new york, cypress into an over the board queens where i grew up in woodhaven. the lled the brooklyn line city line and it is still called that today. city line.n the this area the eastern addition

-- was the tennellment packed immigrant area which brooklyn. city of but across from the c.b.d. you fine neighborhoods from fort green, to the prospect heights. middle class housing for the headed to s people wall street to their corporate job. what i went over the first lecture, remember the fulton street and brooklyn starts in the 17th 1814 it goes high tech. now you know you are going to that is whenyn and brooklyn takes off and where the ferry landed. this is the road to jamaica. we called it fulton street today. brooklyn heights is to the left ridge. the moment you come off the piers you go up to a height. brooklyn height. to the right, no the north it is

land.tty flat it is an industrial area that is fast gentry phiing. brookland ferry is where brooklyn bridge park is. fulton t ferry was to street. 1830's.ime to the he south is to the right and ferry fulton street is to the left. there it is. 1830's this is at the river and starts another ferry. pierponts 's the property develop their and put in a ferry from montague to wall street. so you have three ferries within each other and by the time you get to the

860's they are overrun with people. there was really no place to put another one. century 19th photograph of the montague street dock. property.e pierpont it took you from her to wall street. there is montague on the down slope to bring down from the heights of brooklyn heights to waterfront and here is another view looking at montague quiet and ooks so people. -- think how love layer lovely 8:30 on the morning 6r789 the river and give it another thought because that a weekday 0 on morning was like. it was awful. the cartoons tell you the truth it seems like noah's ark.

you had to deal with it. it is what you had to deal with 8:30. morning at we have it a hard but i think they had it harder. sometimes even the east river would freeze. get out of work 5:30, tired, want to go home you have to walk across the east river and you hope the ice doesn't break and in.fall you notice a brooklyn ferry thaw comes. the it was 1867 when this freeze took place. the city at the time and seeing the freeze, seeing going acrossd from the east river except by foot and he knew that he had a better it visiting new york was this fellow. invited him to dinner to tell jokes. brilliant man,

jeffers he said where do you think the said the new hagel world. go to the new world. e did and wound up in northeastern pennsylvania and a machine that created wire rope. little thin strands of wire out of steel and you bundle got wire rope. with wire rope and then the undles were bundled together and you had a steel cable. could e steel cables you suspend roadways but also canals that needed to cross the landscape. and saw as in new york the east river freeze he knew that the suspension bridge used for the t he canal aqueducts he could adapt

bridge.brooklyn except it would be far longer than anything ever bit and i'm about the central span which is what it has to hold up here is a print of what the future bridge would look like. hey called it the bridge to long island and others called it the new york brooklyn bridge and east and eventually got the name brooklyn bridge. see the per left you delaware aqueduct that he delaware o bring the and hudson canal over the delaware river. that is a river underneath it. the canal is over it and the uspension bridge technology allowed the widest clearance for boats on the delaware river. that was the reason suspension technology was used. roadway. is a i was there many years ago and it may be only a pedestrian

i don't know. but the technology -- it is a eautiful structure north of port jervis and north of interstate 84 and connects rightlvania with new york above port jervis. that bridge is only 500 plus long. the brooklyn bridge will be a long but the central span will be 1,600 feet. that is very important. that is why the suspension technology was used. it gave you the widest span. the east river was a very busy commercial river and it couldn't by a pier to hold up the bridge. you uspension technology nor ,600 feet of space pass. -- for ships to his wire was used in the bridge. it wasn't but that was the scandal. if you want to know about the bridge you read

book.mccullough's at the time the bridge was 100 years old. is going to be in operation independently until the 1950's. used in the george washington bridge opened in 1931. bridge has a central span that is twice the length of brooklyn bridge but g.w. is shorter because it goes from cliff to cliff. palisades cliffs in jersey to those in new york haoeutseights. brooklyn bridge is taking you to fulton and that is flat be a longer bridge. you notice it comes down to this is the city hall park. it takes you from the center of of central business district new york to the heart of the business district of the city of

brooklyn. why it was placed where it was placed. stpraurveying for the bridge he nd his son are on the dock surveying and a brooklyn ferry came in and the operator missed dock he was supposed to the ferry and it rammed into in and crushed his leg and 10 days he died of lock jaw, very horrible dealt. 1869 before it is done he is out of the picture. really built the bridge is this guy. he knew if the name remained in be ory it would always associated with john. he knew that nobody really around. he was he was the guy who actually in the bridge but 1900's and he was interviewed most id to a reporter people think i died in 1869.

that is when his father was accident.the but he did an amazing job of bridge. the within a year of its construction he takes it over rom his father he comes down with the benz, the construction inside see in a moment the caissons which become the was done under very high pressure air. a ou go in high pressure air-to-surface pressure air it is quite a difference and causes fast lem if you go too nitrogen bubbles in the blood. feels -- was fatal. from the work on the bridge. fellow in 1870 basic li -- asically a semi invalid and oversees it from a house that no

longer exists. in the 1950's.ed that timealid for all binoculars or maybe but he would do all f the drawings as you saw the bridge progressing but they had to be taken to the bridge and he couldn't and whoever took it to know what rs will to the drawings were about. who did he choose to do that? his wife emily. what a fascinating lady she was. basically learned basic engineering from her husband so that she could take the drawings engineers on the bridge. theyed a first being -- they men were not happy taking orders from a woman. but she was so confident and so well what she was doing and she was so ever and had the they plan about her that came to respect her that when 1883bridge opened in may of

she got the honor of driving the first carriage over the brooklyn bridge. after it was built she went back housewife. 1900's of the early cancer and her husband who was nvalid during the time got better after it opened and i could imagine why he was invalid. bridges kept on collapsing back then. roguely. in the back of his mind he could have seen the scenario it it opens and it falls into the river. after it was built his nerves settled down and he got over of the medical problems he about outlived his wife 25 years and ran the wire 1900's until the early

out of trenton. still be y might there. itre is a roguely museum and is dedicated to the wire company bridge.klyn he basically winds up running the company even if his 70's. the way his e grandson was running it and came it. of retirement and ran he lives until the 1920's. the last major person involved americconstruction. last of them to survive. person involved boss tweed. the s representative of corrupt politics of the day. there is a story of how he tried way into the funding of the bridge. of his t the height power at the beginning of the construction but fell from power

in the 1870's. today we have a tpnew view of tweed. lot of people say the reformers who hated him wanted he immigrants to be nice white angelo saxon yankees. he didn't care what language they were or where from. he understood they needed coal to heat their apartments and to put foot on the table and he got both of them they gave igrants so him their vote. the 1876, 100 years after revolution and you could imagine considering the corruption that all the way to the white house you wonder maybe the europeans were right that always know on't what they are doing. but we survived tweed and hayes and all theseouse people. we managed. he brooklyn bridge very dangerous. out of an illustration

david mccullough's book. this is one of the caissons that will be the foundation. it was basically a huge out of wood ade turned up side down and pushed to the bottom of the river by top and inside the hollow caisson and they pumped pressure air to keep the water out and men are working with high pressure air and at of the job eight hours, 12 hours they would go to a and spend on tube five minutes and be on the surface. .ot a good idea they wanted to get home to their families. tired.re the interior of the cason on the left or right are two different scenes. on the left you see one of the guys climbing into a chamber.ssion he won't be spend enough time guys and by the way these working class probably the got rants that boss tweed

his votes from. they were lucky because in 1873 and we k market crashed had a depression and they had jobs. in the middle of the depression the 1930's thean best thing is to have a job on a or project like a dam railroad system or the brooklyn bridge. is workingt this guy lamp.e light of a gas very bad combination. there was a horrible fire in one of the caissons. washingtont is where came down with the bens. began until 1883 during that period we invented and telepho ight telephone. edison was working on moving and within three years of the bridge being opened we first steel frame sky scraper.

not that we trusted it but we it.lt so the world is changing. bridge began eubrooklyn pwreupbg we had barely completed the continentcontinental railroad. that was the end of the plains great and that's not a chapter in america history but it was the industrial over theion of america continent. where did the profit and power go? it came back to new york. because we much the city of -- we were the city of the country moneyybody who was making wanted an office in new york. they wanted to live in brooklyn. why this bridge is being built. this is 1877. -- it is like the pyramids and rising above a low britaink up this is the tower to the -- we are looking across to the hudson river and palisades. jersey by the way, in the heart of downtown new york we begin to

buildings because of the coming of the elevator. he elevator was first introduced in the 1850's and everybody wanted to see one. nobody would ride it. afraid of it. began to 0's people get used to it and developers began to develop high-rise buildings with a height of 10 stories. city.oomed above the you had to get in an elevator to get to the top offices and for in history the offices at the top which used to hottest, cheapest, now you got there with an developer would offer you an office with a view. nd they would charge you top dollar and you thought you were so lucky you had a view from the saw thehe buildings and entire manhattan area. those towers they say they are feet high. i'm not sure from where because

river and it goes up nd down and the buildings probably didn't go higher than 230 feet and that is higher than buildings.e so it really was of a scale that you cannot imagine. it is being built on the new york side and when it down, that is me the tphornew york anchorage bei came down in the middle of this five-story city and the city came up to the bridge. young kid and would run around lower manhattan it was before they had ripped down of the buildings around the brooklyn bridge and was so part of the city and today it is separated from the city the traffic ave interchanges and ramps connected it on the brooklyn and new york side. it was not part of the city any more. you can't really go up to it and it.ch it doesn't have the impact to me

it rose out of the walk up city. look at the scale of it and we are looking from the will you 1878.be river 1877, they are beginning to string the cableless. when you look -- cables. there are a few elevator uildings but otherwise a walk up city and look how the towers rose above there city. was impressive. it still is. sacred one of the most structures in new york. people come here just to walk up to it. here is a view of the cables being strung. probably 1878 or 1879. they are wire bundled together go over the top and we look toward manhattan and there are buildings.r office here is brooklyn on the left you mansard tower with the roof? 23ferry he fulton

terminal. that is the empire stores. remember when they had storage there. now they are kind of part of and i have dge part been there for a dance concert. going up overable the bridge. i don't know if you noticed, the weather route to brooklyn or to new york was this theen walkway that ran over top of the towers following the cable.f the i don't know who they got to walk on it but it wouldn't be me. this is the new york side. there is new york anchorage and the elevator office buildings am the background. this is the brooklyn side. that is probably front seat. is on the left. i can barely see the tower of ferry term and to the

is today's neighborhood. the photographer had to climb up top of the to the brooklyn tower, all that protects you from falling off is kind of mesh that you can't hold on and a rope you to. i don't know how he did it but he is up there at the top back to brooklyn. you notice when they designed the bridge they wanted it to down in the commercial area of brooklyn, not residential brooklyn lights. brooklyn justinto ne building away from fulton street. that is fulton street down to the fulton ferry. is running up and turning right and winds up in front of city hall which you really can't see if this photograph. you see how if densely built up it was. it was the heart of old brooklyn and the bridge was pumply pumply designed

to run in back of the kphrerbgs roperties so it wouldn't disturb fulton. you can imagine the intense that cial activity of treet and that street did tpnot provide urban renewal and all of tha that, that whole section of fulton street was ripped out in looking upand we are fulton street and that is the queens expressway and his is past the anchorage toward the dumbo. all of this was demolished. why i have no idea. no wonder we needed her. she understood we were destroying our city. this is a perfect example of why they thought it necessary to rip commercial heart of old brooklyn i don't know. 1950.s been this way since

that is 65 to 70 years. hether or not they ever build anything there i have no idea. that is what it was. the anchorage. this is where the cables came into the ere anchored earth. this is only a sketched part of it. 60,000 tons. to keep that cable in place. don't understand the engineering because inside the hollow cordere is a this a runs up several stories. before 9/11 they opened up the anchorage for all off of evening activities broadway theatre. skertconcerts. i loved it. sometimes you know the venue is more interesting than what you there to see but that is the .ay it is of

as soon as we had the attack on closed it. it was beautiful construction. amazing to go into it. 1881 and they are putting in the roads. you notice the roads are suspended from the cables. of the the point suspension bridge. designed a rope oad but they are building a steel framed road and when the brooklyn bridge feels turned bridge in the 1940's they didn't have to do uch strengthening because that steel frame roadway would support modern car traffic. don't think it can support heavy trucks and buses and that s why they are banned from the brooklyn bridge. you are looking toward new york you have t know if talks you i have been

notice two guys. the are right there in middle of this walkway and one f them looks like he is just nonchalantly leaning against this rope as if he couldn't care less. which he probably doesn't and that is why he is there. theington robeling designed approaches. john didn't live long enough. handsome.uite nobody notices them today because they are buried behind ramps. but in the 1880's even when i kid you could come right up to these approaches. underpasses that ran the streets through. e designed them very wide so ault but they have never been

useful. too damp, too much vibration. the anchorage, both are quite handsome. 20th century functional work and nobody notices them today. 1883 the bridge ochs and people celebrate and they can get home to brooklyn. about that.py by the way, when the brooklyn bridge feels opened it did not ferries out of business. they were running at capacity. the 1880's and mid brooklyn annexed all of county and had reached one million and the only thing that put the ferries out of business the coming of the subway to brooklyn. a dent in the ferry traffic. alone, no.idge because there were so many people trying to get across

bridge in both directions. here is opening day in may of 1883. ou notice there were pedestrians on the roadways and n the middle is the elevated robely e that john designed. he called it the boulevard in the sky. in recent years it was opened to bicyclists. right now they are figuring out if they can widen because they really need to do it with all pedestrians.ts and new yorkers ed could feel like a bird and they east river ver the on his bridge. view.ve them the best are up above the cars and carriages and looking over them. williamsburg and

man-to-man bridge the walkways are at the same level as the traffic. you were above it. the brooklyn bridge was opened either cable cars on side. they were strictly for the bridge. the cable dge opened cared closed at night but by the 1880's they had to go 24 hours a day. underground only in the last year has it gone to 24-hour operation. one of the greatest cities world and the subway midnight.e by not any more. in new york you couldn't have anything closing down even in 1880's and 1890's. those lamps would be gas but there is 1883 and they are electric. a lot of first times people saw electric lighting when they walked across the bridge. and because of the nature of the

cables this is basically the world's first all steel and stone. is melt is steel. it is not iron. we have gone past the age iron. this is the bridge coming into new york and you see the cable city t work and how the really was coming right up to the bridge. through e came right into the city. there was a wonderful relationship between the two. would eventually be ripped out so that the train could come across the river and they built a terminal over park row. that is city hall park the municipal building with civic way at the top. nd hall of records on chamber stre street. this terminal went to various variations. way one of thomas dison's first moving pictures is a trip over the brooklyn l dge on the cable car or

train. i think you can view it. in brooklyn and come over the bridge. so you can go back in the past a certain extent as much as we need to. of brooklyn is -- in is 1910 and it has been new york but the city of brooklyn is growing by leaps an bounds. 1890's and two million by the early 1920's. can't do this with horse cars. you had the bridge but how do you get there. neighborhoods that are growing and being developed far from the bridge you cannot up to the he people bridge in horse cars. it doesn't do it. brooklyn built in the 1880's and 1890's an l. train system that would feed the bridge. four of five of them wind up there. the line that is

feeds the eastern addition that out oadway in brooklyn and of towners don't realize there manhattan, newys, york and brooklyn and astoria queens. this ran through williamsburg, bushwick, east new york, cypress and extended over the city ine through woodhaven in the early 20th century. this is an l train system not an elevated subway. primitive e technology and couldn't handle what a subway today could handle a miracle ays it was because you were not on the street and you knew when you take he l train it would you a certain amount of time to get there but it took that time. they say if you have to go someplace it is 20 minutes plan for a two-hour trip because of the freeways and

people have all of their lives in the trunk of their car ecause they never know if the traffic will be horrible or i will get there in 20 minutes and hour and a half. with the l train system you knew hen you were going to get over the brooklyn bridge to park row and the l trains encouraged the of fine townhouse neighborhoo neighborhoods. talk about what i'm in a minute. this is the post-civil war when all of the cities are suffering too many people and too little space. the streets can't handle it at to and everybody is looking put the new transportation above the street and here are various including on the upper right a monorail. i love it. when i was a kid in the 1950 's popular science and monorail would be the transportation. and great in disney world seattle but that is about it. here is actually on the upper

a real l train system looked. l the the ninth avenue tpeufirst l train line that newk 1870's.n the three cars and i remember l as a kid. but only i'm sure they were narrow rower subway cars. them train system all of were two tracks that stopped three to five blocks and pulled by a steam driven locomotive. this is so american and new york. look where they put it. over the sidewalks of ninth avenue right next to people's the stores.ver so that the day that it went six feet tion you had rom your window this l train only inging by and it is not

noisy but smoke and cinders. new york. so brooklyn. lower right you see northeastern in europe when you see elevated mass transit it is in boulevard.of the the roads are on either side and side of the either road they never would put a sidewalk or a a street the way we do in america. life underrse led to the l. a lot of people can't imagine things living with these but i grew up in an l train neighborhood. i grew up on jamaica was onverted to subway service so they had to rebuild there. but we referred to as the l. with an l we just took it for granted. you would have conversations on the train would come by and noise ground out the

conversation you would stop and both parties look in different the train passed and they would start exactly where off.left you u parked under the l got dings because nuts appear bolts were fall -- and bolts being.all but we lived a half block away if you need to go to sleep, nothing like an l train a laugh block away rumbling in the distance to make you fall asleep. when we moved when i was 11 to a quiet neighborhood without an l sleep for a uld week. it was too quiet. you get used to these things. really, you wonder how life could be led without it. is new york but the l train station in the brooklyn this.m much very much like this is the sixth avenue l at 14th street. remember these stations. eautiful cascading roofs and

multicolored time and beautiful melt work. stick style station house and waiting rooms for men and inside. stain he windows were glass glassed transoms. we would wait in the waiting was cold or waiting in the handsome waiting room. it fwas electric heaters. but when the train, your train, one station away a buzzer would sound and you go on the platform and wait a few and the train would come along. it was civilized. hated the l's by the 20th century. save a shame we didn't system of them. this is the l going out into the opener country upper west side could be brooklyn. in brooklyn the built up section there.be in brooklyn there could be fulton street l being built out

country, into the farmlands of bedford and what stuyvesant heights. it could be fifth avenue in brooklyn where it came down ifth avenue and led to the development of the park. and remember, the l train it the row houses. we would not live in apartment until the end of the 20th century. english did s the in living in a proper row house. harlem, 133rdo be street but it could be crown bedford. fort green. clinton hill. that is how the cities were developed. all of these lines took you to the brooklyn bridge except one ran along broadway brooklyn took you to the williamsburg

then over the brid bridge. ith the coming of the l system you had -- the neighborhoods that are classic brooklyn eighborhoods are there because of the l train. here is the fifth avenue line down or ran down the west side of brooklyn led to the vice president of park slope. upper side, houses of sunset park that is the fifth avenue l train line. street l train led to staoeufr staoeufr santa. i think that is hancock street ff marcy near what was the fulton street l. stuyvesant uses on avenue in the historic district. ey were built in the early 1900's because of the l.

and what about flatbush? his is the reformed church on that t flatbush. that is the dump reform church and it looked like it was but with the rk coming of the l the l train hooked up with an older commuter line that took you lands of flat brooklyn to brighton beach and hook-up with the 1900's in stem by the flatbush you began to get the beautiful f these suburban developments. you are looking in the black and prospect park south when it was first built when whole s successful the series of neighborhoods were built adjacent it the brighton in and this photograph prospect park south is looking coney island avenue. prospect park is a few blocks to

the ight and the rest of neighborhoods, beverly square west and fisk paris all to the left. the brighton line is immediately n back of us and here the neighborhood is brand-new and today the trees arch over the cannot see the houses. the house on the left here is a left and n the lower spectacular houses. back.hole area is coming on flatbush avenue in that area 1930's that was just restored and reopened. but i plan en there to go. i hear they did a magnificent job. changing area is around. trains show you that l were not subways, this is the l trains, brooklyn the myrtle avenue l and lapsed -- and lasted until 1969. can you imagine if this was

be a huge y it would tourist attraction. i'm not sure if you would be work because to those are wooden cars. wooden cars se because they never rebuilt the structure below. merritt avenue of the many avenue l was tufrpbd into a ubway line but they never reconstructed this so it had to carry wooden cars and the this is in 1969, an l interior. not subway. narrower it being than our modern subways. passengers,y seated two sets of double sets and in where dle a narrow aisle only a single line of people could stand. i remember this from the height feet so i was a kid. wondered if i would get strap.ough to hold the

i held on that. i made sure i was within air range.oning that is the two fans up there. plus the open window. when i was growing up there was no air conditioning on subways l trains. as a kid they taught me to look ways and keep your weurts and you never stick your head a subway or l train. other featuresng the guy with the book on his lap about see the ratan seats. i can still smell them and feel them. because it ted them would put a run in their stockings. part of the l trains and early subways. the sky his today with

scraper city this was not going to work. this system was a two-generation system. they built it, used it and by 1920's they were demolishing it. we haded its purpose and to move on. can you imagine with 8.5 million people getting around on these things. it disney world it is fun but we want to live on it. the brooklyn bridge will cause a brooklyn growth in and that l train system will tap into it. leaders knew yn when you came home to brooklyn you needed more than a house and back door and more than an l train and bridge. they do?id you see the sky on the right. statue is at the entrance of prospect park. nobody notices him. i will bet most people think

the mad hatter from alice in wonderer left-hand. wonderer land. but he is the father of the brooklyn park and parkway system. a brilliant man and wonderful the p reas in new york central park had to deal with andrew green, he was in my day in new york a doll. he was just a doll to deal with. him.loved it is a long story but he got east two guys to cross the river and come to brooklyn. they had created central park. that is the architect and they ot a chance to do in brooklyn what they could never do in new york because new york real estate was too expensive. created here is central park that they created in new york but in brooklyn they created prospect park. they considered it a much better

park and theiral masterpiece. by the way, on the right grand plaza leads to downtown brooklyn. on the left that would be flatbush. prospect gardens is over here flatbush is of south of the park. they loved prospect park. them the room to create scapes.istinct land more than that, they got to things in brooklyn that they couldn't do in new york. the city of brooklyn and it would be a american f how all cities could green themselves. prospect park took advantage of in new york here e have the line of hills that runne runs through the new york metropolitan area and created by cap.ice millions of years ago when the

in cap came down it shoved front of it organic debris and it stopped here in the middle of is now new york city and receded, left a pile of rubbish speak that we know as the terminal marine. the modern era if you had money you lived at the top of didn't knowause you how diseases came about and all you knew is if you lived at the evil vapors would town.way from your so it is important to know where the top of the hill is in terms here it comes up the eastern side of staten best of the f the neighborhoods over there. narrows up the western edge of brooklyn and bay ridge ridge and and slope in park slope are all terminal marine. it makes a right turn and where

it makes a right turn at that elbow, that is where prospect park is located. eastward and on top of that ridge of the terminal is they put one of their two they could ething not do in new york. kraod runs northeast northern long island. theis map on the top is park slope and then at army plaza it makes a right turn and comes in this direction. parkway is eastern built where it was built and the is prospect park in elbow with the first thing they in brooklyn they could not do in new york east of flatbush avenue they set aside a triangular piece of land for all of the major cultural this great city of brooklyn and eventually

rooklyn library and museum and botanic guards and for 50 years at the southern tip of the kpwarpbtdz one of the great civic monuments, ebbets fields. of this could go on and be independent of prospect park. they didn't want buildings in parks. they said we live in cities that are full of buildings. hey got there triangle of cultural institutions on the other side of flatbush avenue brooklyncould build in parkways. it took you from prospect park cross the flat lands and purposely didn't build it along the ridge of the terminal. the wanted you to feel landscape of the flat lands of northern endat the another parkway ran east along he ridge of the terminal eastern parkway. because at ralph avenue

that was the city limit. meant to parkways much xtend the feeling of country asi side. this is eastern parkway in the 1890's. looks a little different today. the whole point of the parkway a linear strip of countryside and not a boulevard. a boulevard. a festivaltograph is so they put sod over the road generally the road. it is an urban street. for those not familiar with paris between the trees and uildings are wide sidewalks with cafes and restaurants with people spilling on the sidewalks. sidewalks for strolling. this is urban and this is a greenbelt. two different ways of approaching city planning.

we are very angry. we wanted to get to the country and that's what we did. eastern parkway the brooklyn museum. but rising of focus -- it was meant to rise setting.country it kind of does even to this day. the other thing they were able in blrooklyn is create a system.er park prospect park the mother, park ed park for green would give everybody in the northern neighborhoods of brooklyn what they could get in walkect park they couldn't to it that easy so it gave them ramble, meadows, hyde park corner where anybody could what they want to. there.u had it all and they created for what became he neighborhood we call

bed-stuy two tiny squares thompson contingents park which now bunting and saratoga park tiny squares to serve the neighborhood around. prospect park, fort green park and two middle squares. 1890's without using them midsized andsecond called it sunset park. nd it is located south of greenwood self -- cemetery on the ridge. when the fifth avenue l train and this in the 1880's area opened up to development, they called the neighborhood the park k after itself. o, all of these neighborhoods basically were able to benefit fact that they gave american cities a template for

greening themselves. thompkins park now qualified, saratoga square as well, and showing you the neighborhoods that some of you don't know brooklyn, you're not familiar with brooklyn, the neighborhoods i just mentioned, sunset park built over -- off the fifth avenue el. they both benefited from the greening of brooklyn. fort greene, and east of it, clinton hill, benefited from the myrtle avenue el, bedford stuyvesant, as well asen crown heights, and flatbush from the brighton line. so they had transportation, they had the bridge, but they had a green framework that brooklyn could grow around. and as a matter of fact, olmstead realized that this was his life's work. eventually by the mid 1870's, he separated professionally, but olmstead went on to green

the american cities based on what he had done in brooklyn back in the 1860's. and that greenbelt, it actually is part of a greenbelt that, well, it's not exactly a continuous greenbelt, but it runs throughout the brooklyn-queens area. on the lower left, prospect park and ocean parkway taking you to the beaches of the atlantic ocean, where the green line makes a right turn. that is eastern parkway. eastern parkway extension, not exactly landscape, but the original, but it's kind of in the spirit of the original. that takes you to the new edges. city of brooklyn. and then in the 1890's, with the advice of olmstead, the city of brooklyn created a greenbelt between itself and the rural county of queens. that includes highland park at the brooklyn edge, forest park at the queens edge, and a series of cemeteries in between . robert moses put the jackie

robinson park way through the greenbelt in the 1930's. from those cemeteries, you have magnificent views of the manhattan skyline. people wondering, always wonder why they gave the cemeteries the best views. remember, the cemeteries were semipublic parks. and on summer weekend, you would go have a picnic in the cemetery around the grave of a deceased relative, a family friend, somebody you loved, and they would be part of the picnic. we don't do that anymore. we have a very different view of death. i can't say it's an improvement, but we have a different view of death. d then if you can ignore the queue garden interchange, the a is where the unisphere is, and the citi field just north of it. then you access the queens botanical far dense directly east of the parkway. cunningham park, and from cunningham park the old

vanderbilt motor highway. back in the 1900's, one of the vanderbilts built america's first road that was tailored to the car. it was meant to take the wealthy car owners out to long sland, i'm sure race horses, car race horses. but with the vanderbilt -- i keep on wanting to say parkway, but the roadway, which is now a bike path and a hiking path, you access ally pond park, and that gives you access to little neck bay, douglas, and on the east, bayside on the west. so you have a greenbelt running hrough a piece of land two boroughs in new york, and you have five million people so. that greenbelt is something you notice and think about, maybe to improve in the future. when we come back in a couple of weeks, we'll look at the brooklyn bridge. remember, even though brooklyn was annexed, it still thought

like a city. and for about a dozen or more years after the annexation until world war i, brooklyn is going to give us cultural institutions, including the brooklyn academy of music, and the brooklyn botanic gardens. all of these institutions either created or rebuilt or expand in addition major way after the annexation. ploon continues to think like a city, but after world war i, the subway came to brooklyn, the masses came to brooklyn, and brooklyn would change again. i'll see you in a couple. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] >> well, barry, you've done it

again, and he will be coming back again again and again. we have great programs, as i mentioned in the spring. everyone, have a very happy thanksgiving. barry, have a wonderful thanksgiving, and we'll see you all again. thank you very much. >> you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. follow the transition of government on c-span, as president-elect donald trump selects his cabinet and the republicans and democrats prepare for the next congress. we'll take you to key events as they happen without interruption. watch live on c-span, watch on

demand at c-span.org, or listen n our free c-span radio app. this past july, american history tv marked the national air and space museum's 40th anniversary with tours and interviews. we saw one-of-a-kind aviation and space artifacts, including the apollo lunar module. here's a preview. >> when children look at this spacecraft, they often say that doesn't look like a space ship, because we tend to think that spacecraft are always streamlined and maybe they look like rockets. more than anything else. but this spacecraft has an interesting design, and in some ways, it's fairly primitive, given the job that it had to do. it didn't need to be streamlined on the outside, because it was not going to operate in the atmosphere. it