Right now I’m in that February slump where I’m getting a little antsy to get outside and go on adventures again. Since it won’t stop raining and snowing, I’ve settled for reliving old explorations through pictures. One of the most surprising adventures that Sean, Adele, and I have gone on was the afternoon we spent in Green-Wood Cemetery in the heart of Brooklyn.
What started as a large rural cemetery in Brooklyn now feels like an enormous blip of NYC to me. The city and Brooklyn have really grown up and dense around the cemetery so it feels very strange to go from the urban Brooklyn environment to the rolling hills and beautiful structures of Green-Wood. I think the most striking thing about Green-Wood is that it has the beauty and landscape of a park, but for the most part it’s completely empty of people.
It feels a bit strange to recommend visiting a cemetery as a tourist attraction, but time moves so quickly when you’re living in this city and Green-Wood is a reminder to slow down and just live.
There are over 600,000 graves in the cemetery, many of them legendary New Yorkers. The New York Times once said that “it is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green-Wood.”
Because the cemetery does feel a bit like a park, it was hard not to keep thinking about what an incredible place Green-Wood would be for a run. I’ve really understood why going on an introspective jog through a cemetery is disrespectful, but holding haunted ghost tours is totally cool. o/ 🙂
One of the coolest things about the cemetery is that you can see the skyline of Manhattan from the tallest point in Brooklyn. In that spot there is a statue of Minerva waving at the Statue of Liberty across the water.
A visit to Green-Wood is a really fun way to spend an afternoon and I recommend it to anyone who likes to walk around on self-guided tours. I look forward to going back this spring. Until then, I’ll be sitting on my couch looking through more photos and making a list of spots to revisit. 🙂
Perfect! I've done cemetary tours all over Europe but never really thought to look around the US. Any famous graves in Green Wood?
Wow, this is beautiful! We've done the tourist thing in cemeteries before so it's totally not weird 🙂
haha! Boss Tweed, Leonard Bernstein… 😀 MISS YOU ALANA!!
Now if only running was cool. 😉
Do you mind me asking: what did you use to create this website?
Not at all! Nothing fancy– I actually use Blogger! 🙂
STACIE. (it's E!) I USED TO LIVE DIRECTLY NORTH OF GREENWOOD CEMETARY WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME YOU WERE GONNA BE THEREEEEE WAAAAAAH (hai, i'm stalking your DIY apartment posts! see you tomorrow ruv!)