A border of tombs almost surrounds Brooklyn, for in the suburbs are
the great cemeteries which are the burial-places of both cities. In
lovely situations upon the surrounding hills are Greenwood, Cypress
Hills, Evergreen, Holy Cross, Calvary, Mount Olivet, The Citizens'
Union, Washington and other cemeteries, occupying many hundreds of
acres. Of these, the noted Greenwood is the chief, covering some four
hundred acres on Gowanus Heights, south of the city. This is a high
ridge dividing Brooklyn from the lowlands on the south side of Long
Island, and it has elevations giving charming views. The route to it
crosses various railroads leading to Coney Island, which is the
ultimate objective point of most Brooklyn lines of transit. A neat
lawn-bordered road leads up to the magnificent cemetery entrance on
Fifth Avenue, an elaborate and much ornamental brownstone structure
rising into a central pinnacle over a hundred feet high. This entrance
covers two fine gateways, with representations of Gospel scenes, the
principal being the Raising of Lazarus and the Resurrection. The
grounds display great beauty, the ridgy, rounded hills spreading in
all directions, the surface being an alternation of hills and vales,
vaults terracing the hillsides, with elaborate mausoleums above and
frequent little lakes nestling in the pleasant valleys. Vast sums have
been expended on some of the grander tombs, which are upon a scale of
great magnificence. The attractive rural names of the walks and
avenues, the delicious flowers and foliage, the balmy air, the lakes,
valleys and points of beautiful outlook giving grand views over New
York Bay and the surrounding country, make Greenwood a park as well as
a cemetery, and it is generally admitted to be without a peer. Many
costly pantheons and chapels cover the remains of well-known people,
and one mausoleum is a large marble church. A three-sided monument of
peculiar construction standing on a knoll marks the resting-place of
Samuel F. B. Morse, the telegrapher. Horace Greeley's tomb has his
bust in bronze on a pedestal. A colossal statue surmounts the grave of
the great De Witt Clinton, the Governor of New York who built the Erie
Canal and thus secured the commercial supremacy of the city. The
romantic career of Lola Montez ended in Greenwood. Commodore Garrison,
who was at one time Vanderbilt's rival in steamship management, is
interred in a mosque. The tomb of the Steinways is a large granite
building. A magnificent marble canopy crowns the Scribner tomb, having
beneath it an angel of mercy. There is an appropriate monument to
Roger Williams. Here are also buried Elias Howe, the inventor of the
sewing-machine, Peter Cooper, Henry Ward Beecher, James Gordon
Bennett, Henry George and others of fame. The Firemen, the Pilots and
the New York Volunteers all have grand monuments, the statue sentinels
of the latter overlooking the bay. Among these magnificent sepulchres,
probably the most magnificent is that of Charlotte Canda, an heiress,
who died in early youth, her fortune being expended upon her tomb.
There is a high lookout upon the eastern border of this attractive
place, where the flat land at the base of the ridge spreads for miles
away to the sea. The Coney Island hotels, by the ocean side, are dim
in the distance, and far over the water the Navesink Highlands close
the view beyond Sandy Hook. The many railroads leading to Coney Island
can be traced out, as on a map, across the level land. Over on the
western side of the cemetery is another lookout, having a broad view
of Brooklyn and the harbor, extending to the hills of Staten Island
and the distant Jersey lowlands beyond. This is the verge of Gowanus
Heights, with the busy commerce of the port spread at its base. It is
this magnificent scene which the marble sentinels overlook who are
guarding the Volunteers' Monument erected by the city of New York.
Between Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park there are various
railways, all going to Coney Island, and also the Ocean Parkway,
leading thither, a splendid boulevard, two hundred feet wide, and
planted with six rows of trees, being flanked on either side by a
broad cycle-path. It is laid in a straight line from the southwestern
corner of the Park for three miles to the great seaside resort.
Prospect Park covers nearly a square mile on an elevated ridge on the
edge of Brooklyn, and it has great natural attractions which did not
need much change to improve the landscape, while the fine old trees
that have been there for centuries are in magnificent maturity. Its
woods and meadows, winding roads, lakes and views, combine many
charms. On Lookout Hill, rising two hundred feet, the most commanding
point, with a view almost entirely around the compass, there is a
monument on the slope in memory of the Maryland troops who fell in the
Revolutionary battle of Long Island, fought in August, 1776, on these
heights. The Park is ornamented with several statues, including one of
Abraham Lincoln, and there is a bust of John Howard Payne, the author
of _Home, Sweet Home_. It has an extensive lake, a deer preserve,
children's playgrounds, and a concert grove and promenade. The main
entrance is a fine elliptical plaza with a splendid fountain, and
adorned by a Memorial Arch to the Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil
War, and a statue of James Stranahan, a venerable citizen of Brooklyn,
foremost in all its good works, who died in 1898. The Brooklyn
Institute, an academy of art and science with a large membership, has
a large building in the Park.