Flatbush Avenue (Brooklyn)

Flatbush Avenue is one of the major avenues in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Flatbush Avenue runs from the Manhattan Bridge southeastward to Jamaica Bay, where it becomes Marine Parkway and the Marine Parkway Bridge which connects Brooklyn to the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. The north end was extended to serve the Manhattan Bridge, the new roadway being named "Flatbush Avenue Extension". [Pollak, Michael. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/nyregion/thecity/18fyi.html "Twain's Magical Mystery Tour"] , "The New York Times", June 18, 2006. Accessed December 9, 2007. "The Flatbush Avenue extension was built 100 years ago through the 1850's-era Vinegar Hill neighborhood to connect Flatbush Avenue with the anticipated Manhattan Bridge, which opened in 1909."]

The diagonal path of Flatbush Avenue creates a unique street pattern in every neighborhood it touches. It is the central artery of the borough, carrying traffic to and from Manhattan past landmarks such as Junior's, Long Island University, the Fulton Mall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Terminal, Grand Army Plaza, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Prospect Park, Erasmus Hall High School and Floyd Bennett Field.

Flatbush Avenue creates the borders of neighborhoods including, Prospect Heights / Park Slope, and Flatbush / East Flatbush. It also touches many other neighborhoods en route to Queens, including Flatlands and East Flatlands.

Flatbush Avenue also starts off a good majority of Brooklyn's other main throughfares. Ocean Avenue, Empire Boulevard, Eastern Parkway, and Utica Avenue all have their western, northern or southern end at Flatbush Avenue.

Flatbush Avenue is a four-lane street throughout the majority of its run, however, south of where Utica Avenue merges with Flatbush Avenue near Kings Plaza, it becomes an eight-lane median divided street, making it one of the widest "avenues" in New York City.

Flatbush Avenue is the main thoroughfare through the Borough of Brooklyn, and was originally an Indian trail taking advantage of a low point in the moraine forming the spine of Long Island that is now called Grand Army Plaza. Historic homes line the neighborhoods around the Avenue, and in the late 1920s it was straightened to its current form. Remnant streets such as Amersfort Place still remain in the city grid as an echo of the past.

Flatbush Avenue is served by the B41 bus line (formerly a trolley line running the length of the avenue), and the Q35 bus line, the latter of which goes to Rockaway Beach via the Marine Parkway Bridge. Many subway lines run under the avenue in Downtown Brooklyn and the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line terminates at the Flatbush/Nostrand station.

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