Ocean Parkway Brooklyn

In 1866, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who also designed Central Park and Prospect Park, recommended the construction of Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway to Brooklyn park commissioners. The proposed Ocean and Eastern Parkways would connect Prospect Park with Coney Island and East New York, respectively. Their parkway design was inspired by boulevards such as Berlin’s Unter den Linden and Paris’ Avenue Foch.However, Ocean and Eastern Parkways were thought to be better than these two thoroughfares because they would have service lanes separated from the main road by tree-lined medians. Because the road to Coney Island would reach the water, it was thus called the “Ocean Parkway”.On May 11, 1869, the New York State Legislature authorized the City of Brooklyn commissioners to “lay out, open, and improve a public highway or avenue from Prospect Park, in the City of Brooklyn, to Coney Island.”The statute was revised in 1872.Construction of the parkway began in 1874, with the portion between Prospect Park and Kings Highway opened the following year. The last stretch of Coney Island began in “early spring” 1876 and was completed on November 11, that year.Landowners whose properties were 1,050 feet (320 meters) on either side of the parkway covered the construction costs. The costs were expected at the time to be $1 million (equivalent to $28,568,000 in 2023), with the stretch north of Kings Highway accounting for three-fourths of the total. Following legislation established in 1882, these landowners were relieved of two-thirds of their costs.

Horseback riding

Bridle pathways were also used on Ocean Parkway in the past. The bridle pathways ran along the eastern side of Ocean Parkway, and equestrians could rent horses near Prospect Park and ride them all the way to Coney Island. Horse and sleigh racing used to take place on the parkway’s bridle pathways. Horse racing took occurred at both the Gravesend Race Track and Brighton Beach Race Course, which were adjacent to Ocean Parkway. In 1908 or 1910, a ban on open betting went into force, and horse racing were discontinued at all of these sites.