Bodacious Brooklyn

      I get into Penn Station this am all ready for today's journey to begin.  We meet up with the professor at 11:05am sharp and we take the Q train to Coney island.

All ready for today's journey

This is what we see as we are approaching our stop

Felt like a kid again!

         As we got closer to our destination, I see from the trains windows, the Brooklyn Bridge and once we got a little closer, I see nothing but bright colors and amusement rides.  Boy this is a long 45 minute ride, but finally we reached our destination and we hopped off on Surf Avenue.  The first thing I saw was the Famous Nathans A.K.A. the original Nathans, and lots of rides.  And all that comes up to mind is those hot dog contests that take place here.  So the professor took us aside and begins to tell  us a little about Coney island .  Coney Island was originally home to the Dutch who named it after the rabbits who had inhabited most of the island. Originally Coney Island was basically just a resort consisting of a hotel however, eventually it became an island full of amusement parks.  You could go on rides, go to the "freak show" and enjoy the fun house.  In the 1920's and 30's Coney Island was the place to be, not only for the amusement parks, but for the beach as well.  However, in the 1940's Coney Island became less popular due to technological and developmental advances such as cars, and Robert Moses' creation of more renounce parks and beaches.  After that, Coney Island went down hill and was really not the place to be at all. With the creation of housing projects and an increase in crime rate, Coney Island was feared more than enjoyed by those who visited.  Yet, Coney Island did leave quite the impression during its glory days, and because of that, gentrification has taken place, an a rebuild of the amusement park and developmental advances have taken place.  Coney Island is on the verge of being rebuilt and re-glorified, and hopefully this will spark the interest of both old and new visitors, giving tourist as well as locals a place to both relax and have fun in one beautiful place. (Blue Guide, 491, 492).  Then we are off on our own to explore and experience what it was all about.  Was very disappointed that we only had an hour to do so.  Felt like it took longer to get here.  But had to make the best out of it.  

They were the brave ones.......

So I went with a few classmates to begin the exploring and we began at the Cyclone roller coaster where I didn't go on because of my vertigo :( but stayed watching over my friends bags.  When they came down they looked as pale as a white piece of paper and one even said that there security bar didn't work but thank God that they had made it down safe.  

So much for the horse lol

Sad we had to head to leave :(

Then we went to walk around and I even took a picture with a police officer and his horse.  Just a little upset that he didn't let me get on the horse just to take a picture.A great thing about Coney Island is that it offers so much to do.  From laying out on the beach, and getting some sun to walking over to the amusement park and play games, go on rides and have a great time.  The boardwalk alone offers you a variety of things to do such as the Coney Island Museum, New York Aquarium, or the Coney Island Brewery btw beers at the deli are way cheaper.  

The Original Nathan's

Oh wells then I couldn't even pickup anything to eat at the original Nathan's because it was already time to head back and meet with Mike and Hayes.  But definantly have to say it was a beautiful day to walk around and enjoy the day, too bad it was too short.  Hadn't been here years ago.  Looking forward to coming back my daughter and husband this summer.  After Coney Island, we hopped back on the F train to Jay Street and our next destination was the New York Transit Museum.  This museum is located in an unused subway station created in 1976.  It was once an actual functioning subway station for the HH train, and now it is a very popular museum that shows the developments and advances of the subway system throughout time.  This museum features exhibits on buses, bridges, tunneling, placing great emphasis on the subway system of Court street station, through photos, interactive equipment, and actual train cars that were actually used back in the day. (Blue Guide, 468).  This museum was interesting.  We took a self guided tour, so we were able to venture through the museum at our own pace and take a look at all it had to offer.  I would have rather ed a tour guide because I would have learned more and probably appreciated the museum a lot more.  It was nice to see the machinery used to break through the bedrock which lies beneath the city.  Its very strong stone and therefore requires a great deal of heavy machinery to make subway tunnels.  It was also interesting to see how the trains worked, the electrical and technological advances through time giving the subway the ability to run.  Another interesting aspect of the museum was that it was almost fully interactive.  You could sit on old buses, move objects to make electrical circuits and systems and once I went to the second floor and was able to sit on old train cars, it became a lot of fun.  When I saw all these old trains I Love Lucy came into mind once again.  As you can see I am an I Love Lucy fan.  Then to see how much these train cars have changed was really shocking for me.  Each car definitely could be identified with a different decade in which it might have run. The cars have constantly changed and today they are so different than they used to be and for good.  I also noticed some of the cars had fabric seating and material handles to hold on to, which definitely could not be very sanitary.  There were also fans used to cool the cars, which were tiny and definitely did not do the job back in the day.  Thank God for air conditioning today don't see myself without it in these days.  I can see how positive changes were made and how today's cars are a lot more realistic and sanitary than those from the past.  This museum was interesting, however, like I mentioned earlier, a guided tour would have been a lot more educational for me.  

The oldest building in Brooklyn " Brooklyn Borough Hall"

         From the Transit Museum, we ventured through Brooklyn Heights, walking blocks and blocks packed full of history, admiring the brownstones and everything the city had to offer.  We went through the Brooklyn Borough Hall which is the oldest building in Brooklyn. 

Just beautiful

 These buildings of Brooklyn Heights were beautiful, especially the brownstones.  Each brownstone had its own style.  Mostly Greek, Gothic and Italian architecture, the brownstones, most buildings and the churches were really quite interesting. (Blue Guide, 466) We passed some larger Churches as The Spencer Memorial Church, St. Anne's Church that was built in 1847 and the First Unitarian Church.  These were all very beautiful, however some of them were in places where you could fully see them without the shadows of other buildings and urban surroundings, their presence would be much more significant and much more appreciated. 

Beautiful Church

House #102

 

As we strolled through the streets, Mike pointed out many historical brownstones house # 102 that belonged to novelists Arthur Miller and Norman Maller. These beautiful brownstones lead us to the The Brooklyn Bridge. 

 

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension brides in the United States and definitely one of the most beautiful.  This bridge connects Manhattan to Brooklyn and is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world.  The bridge was originally designed by John Roebling, a German architect who made his way to NY.  He had never made such a big bridge before however he took on the challenge. While doing bridge research, John sustained a foot crushing injury that led to an amputation that led to tetanus that led to his death.  John's son Washington decided to take over the plans and go forth with the Creation of the bridge, however, while doing work on the bridge, Washington sustained a paralyzing injury from decompression syndrome that left him unable to work, however, he wasn't going to give up so easily.  Although unable to physically supervise the construction, he supervised from afar, in a brownstone that had a dead on view of the bridge. Emily, Washington's wife, became the engineer, supervisor and messenger.  She had to learn how to be an architect and all the math that went along with it in order to help her husband live out his dream in finishing the bridge.  Emily would run back and forth from the brownstone to the bridge and rely messages to the workers, giving them plans and notes on how to complete the bridge. In the end the Brooklyn bridge was successfully completed and opened for use in 1883.  So much history is involved in the creation of the bridge and when you finally get up close and you're able to walk across it, you really get a feel of how special it truly is.  Anyway, after waking for a miles, we made our way closer to the bridge, The view as you got closer and closer to the bridge was beautiful.  

I saw a beautiful bride and groom taking there wedding pictures with these beautiful surroundings.  Then we passed a Carousel that was fully functioning and apparently a project created by the Governor of NY to try and spruce up the place.  After that we stopped for some ice cream it was just AMAZING.  I definitely recommend the vanilla and strawberry, it was very creamy and delicious.  Following our ice cream stop we made our way to the bridge, which we walked across.  

Vanilla & strawberry yum.........

at a ice cream shop in Dumbo 

Thought the bridge was longer but wasn't at all.  As I walked through it I appreciated the work that went into creating the bridge and was unbelievable to my eyes.  As I walked across there were many bike riders just speeding past my side, cars driving under me , and as I  looked up at all the suspension ropes and the brick work that I saw, really felt it was great experience that I never imagined I was able to accomplish.  It made me really think about the effort that went into that bridge, especially considered all the mishaps that occurred and all the effort both Emily and Washington put in to get the bridge just right to support all that used it. It's important to take your time crossing the bridge so you can really look at the work put into it and look across the East River and really just appreciate things.  Walking the Brooklyn Bridge was a great experience for me and by the time I got across I was done for the day it was time to go home.  But after this great experience we got a bit lost getting back to Penn Station.  Mike gave us directions to get back there by giving us the "Z" directions like he said.  But I think it would've been much shorter walking back then taking the train back. Getting home seemed to be a lot harder, as  we got on the wrong subway train and ended up having to turn around and go back to the beginning.  It was a lot of running back and fourth but eventually we all got to where we needed to go.With this I conclude that Brooklyn was amazing and I'm glad I got to learn about this borough and experience some of it's history.     

We'll just call this the before picture

Yayyyyy We did it!!!!