OVERVIEW
Prospect Park is the second largest public park in Brooklyn.
Situated between the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Ditmas Park and Windsor Terrace, as well as Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
HISTORY
Designed and constructed over a thirty-year period (1865-1895) by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the masterminds behind Central Park, Prospect Park has blossomed into a premiere destination for Brooklyn visitors and residents alike.
ASTORIA
WATERCOURSE
Widely known for its intricate manmade watercourse (wetlands) and its trees, the bulk of Brooklyn’s remaining indigenous forest, the park is a highly functional green space.
Contained within its 526 acres are a zoo, the first urban-area Audubon Center in the nation, an ice rink, a band shell, a carousel, and dozens of athletic and recreational facilities.
ART
Park visitors may have noticed something new to Prospect Park’s landscape: two colorful steel sculptures inside the Grand Army Plaza and Bartel-Pritchard Square entrances. These abstract and playful shapes are the creation of local artist Fitzhugh Karol, whose works are on view in Prospect Park and Tappen Park in Staten Island through the NYC Parks Art in the Parks program, in collaboration with Prospect Park Alliance.
TRANSPORTATION
Brooklyn’s backyard is best experienced on foot or bicycle. It can be reached by: NJT (NJT, F), from World Trade Center PATH (R, F), from Fort Greene Park (G), from Staten Island Mall (X17, R, F).