BrooklyN

Our second Class! Today I woke up excited about our next journey but not excited at the same time just thinking about the walk we are about to encounter. Our first stop Coney Island! Surprisingly this summer was the first time I have been to Coney island so today made it my second .I was disappointed that the park was closed for the season because there was not much to do there besides enjoy the food particularly Nathans hotdogs and purchases a couple of items at the flea market which was not a disappointment at all.

 

 

 

After living in Long Island for so long what I never knew that this class taught me is that “Brooklyn occupies the western tip of Long Island “ (B.G. 461) which makes long island and Brooklyn literally neighbors. The Dutch were the first to help Brooklyn gain its name. They first “settled in the 17^th century buying land from the Carnarsie Indians” (B.G. 462). 

Walking through Brooklyn I always wondered what older people meant by “Brooklyn use to be good back in the days” thinking to my self what went wrong. I know realize it was not until after 1955 is when Brooklyn struggled with “drugs, crime, the decay of the infrastructure, and other urban problems” (B.G.p.463). After jobs were being lost because of the setback of the Depression major businesses and large neighborhoods became “derelict”(B.G. p.463).

Next stop, was the F train to the transit museum. When I first was walking down the stairs to enter the museum I thought we were hoping on another train not realizing it was the Transit Museum. This place really amazed me by the way it was built so precisely. From the turnstile, subways, to the actuality of each subway according to the year it was used in, everything in that museum caught my attention.  First open to the public in 1976 this museum was open to show the past, present and potential future of the transportation system that we all use today. After listening to the tour guide one interesting fact I learned was “the creation of the first line that had 28 stations took four years today” and now “it takes four years to build one station” (tour guide). That’s amazing to me it goes to show easier ( obviously not labor wise) it was to get the creation of a train line to make progress.  However, although it did take 4 years to make 28 stations I have learned  to have gained so much respect for the workers that built it because of their long, extraneous work hours and the heavy load of debris they had to push away from their work site. I tried just lifting it and it was extremely heavy to me. We should be so grateful for the technology and modern day equipment that allows and to move debris and make our work day that much easier. 

After leaving that amazing museum we went to visit the Brooklyn Historical Society. That place did not catch my interest at all. Yes, a lot of information was given to us about many historical figures and sites but our tour guide did not present the information in a pleasing and somewhat exciting tone.

Finally our walk over the Brooklyn bridge! Never did it cross my mind that I would be walking that bridge I literally thought Mike and Meritta was kidding around when they mentioned that.  It was not until I saw the bridge and the length of it I realized this was no joke.  However, I the walk was not as bad as I thought it would be I would actually do it again. It amazed me how many people were walking the bridge using that as their means of transportation.

Opening on “May 25^th 1883” (B.G. p.464) and costing “15 million dollars to build” (B.G. p.464) the end result  of this bridge was created by a woman the wife Colonel Washington Roebling and daughter law of John A. Roebling. The planning of this bridge was done by John Reobling but then he contracted tetanus and died and then his son Colonel continued his work but then he contracted caisson disease so his wife was the messenger to the workers while Colonel laid in his bed watching from his window the building of the Brooklyn bridge.

Overall, today was another good day intensive walking again but still a very informative day.