Sixteenth Street

Sixteenth Street. Brooklyn's Ice Age. , At this spot over 10,000 years ago a sheet of ice, as thick as the World Trade Center is tall, started melting. [Unreadble], Upon this landscape, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux created their greatest masterpiece, Prospect Park. The unique combination of hills and forests, meadows and lakes gives this Park its beauty., The geography of the Park is an essential part of its design. In the designers' time the hills boasted a modest woodlands, the remainder of one that stretched from here out to the end of Long Island. This rich plain supported an extensive farming community which for almost a century exported crops west to pioneers along the Erie Canal. The two distinct zones of landscape, the rocky hills or moraine and the outwash plain, give the Park a great range of environments and a greater diversity of plants., [Captions:] , The Vaux sketch, January 7, 1865. , In his initial sketch for Prospect Park, Calvert Vaux rearranged the Park boundary proposed by Egbert Viele, to include the area of outwash plain. The woods and meadows in the moraine, together with a large lake in the outwash plain would provide the three fundamental features of a pastoral landscape. The Lake (above) under construction, looking southwest from Breeze Hill. Together with Lookout Hill in the distance to the right, and Willing Hill to the East, these ridges mark the southern most advance of the glacier in Prospect Park., In 1868, (right) the Lake was dug out of the low-lying [unreadable] plain of the Wisconsin glacier, the point where the melting glacier washed away to the sea., Friends Cemetery existed along Quaker Hill more than a decade before any plans before Prospect Park., [Sidebar:] , [Unreadable] Friends Cemetery, established in 1851, is located just inside this entrance. The Prospect Park Southwest sidewalks were rebuilt in the 1990s., [Marker reverse:] , Welcome to Prospect Park.

Facts About Prospect Park , . Designated a N.Y.C. Scenic Landmark in 1975 , . Placed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1980 , . Site of the Battle of Long Island, the American Revolution, August 27, 1776 , . Designed 1866 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Cavert Vaux , . Original construction 1866 - 1874 with later changes , . Park Size: 526 Acres , . The Lake: (Man-made. Average depth-7 feet) 60 Acres , . Water-course: (Falling Terrace Bridge) 1 Mile , . The Long Meadow: 1 Mile , . Woodlands: 250 Acres , . Trees outside Woodlands: Approximately 10,000