Eastern Parkway
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Eastern Parkway
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Near New York Avenue in Crown Heights
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| Location | Brooklyn, New York City |
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| Built | 1870 |
| Architect | Frederick Law Olmsted; Calvert Vaux |
| NRHP Reference # | 83001689 |
| Added to NRHP | September 26, 1983 |
Eastern Parkway is a major boulevard that runs through a portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The road begins at Grand Army Plaza and extends east, running parallel to Atlantic Avenue, along the crest of the moraine 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 Cemetery where the moraine takes a steep climb towards a peak at Ridgewood Reservoir.
Eastern Parkway is credited as the world's first parkway. According to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation's description of Eastern Parkway:
The world's first parkway was conceived by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1866. The term parkway was coined by these designers as a landscaped road built expressly for 'pleasure-riding and driving' or scenic access to Prospect Park (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.
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