I’m native to the Queens area of NYC but I’ve recently been finding myself exploring areas around Brooklyn. Not only is my college located in this borough, but we’re using it’s rich history to explore ideas and evoke thought on it’s modern day impact. On one of my trips to my college, a friend of mine recommended I explore the area known as “Dumbo”. I was intrigued by his experience in that area. Since then , its been stuck in the back of my head and its only been recently that the idea of exploration has come to my English classroom. We’ve been reading about how writers like Nelson George and Colson Whitehead, explained their experience in this city using vivid detail and reflecting on the idea of how their environment help mold them to the person they became known for. My childhood was spent growing up in Queens and I also graduated from a high-school in Queens, so its safe to say I never got around much. I would rarely go to into the city and only on rare occasions would I ever set my foot in Brooklyn. Before starting college, I thought of Brooklyn as a desolate area with a lot of violence but then I learned that place is actually called Maspeth Creek. It was all a mystery to me. So, imagine my surprise when I got a lesson on how much history Brooklyn really has! As always, we would not have history if we were not able to look back into the past and compare it with current times.

My trip began going under an overpass and standing right next to the York St train station. I stood at the corner, taking in the ambiance of being in Brooklyn. I then continued walking up Jay street and exploring everything on my path. I took a left at Water street and then paused to look at the ground in the street. The ground underneath it was exposed with a layer of bricks. It somehow accented the environment. Normally, the streets are carefully cemented with black tar and all of that makes it presentable and acceptable by today’s standards. Streets that look old and exposed, tend to be overlooked. But in this case, the surrounding buildings and their design welcome the exposed street in the sense that they looked like they belong together. It was very much like in the same way a dirt road goes with a village hut, snow with an igloo and a desert with cactus. I continued walking down Water Street until I came across this small plaza. Right next to this plaza was the Manhattan Bridge. Normally, you would see a bridge from a distance or while you’re driving over it, but standing right next to it is a different experience. It was really amazing standing under the stupendous intrados of the Manhattan bridge. It made me stop and admire the amount of work that went into building it. I walked under it and it had a vast open space. It had wonderful acoustics and the echoes were beautiful. Then, I took this time to take pictures of this area. I was really enjoying my time in Dumbo and so I continued to explore a bit more. I stood at a corner of the plaza which could help capture a good view of the intrados and the surrounding area. I had an overwhelming feeling that I was at the edge of a major discovery.

The name of the plaza is Pearl St Plaza. Adjacent to the plaza was a building, and one thing I forgot to point out is that all the buildings surrounding the plaza were made of bricks! There were no contemporary buildings in the vicinity. Now, the view of the Manhattan Bridge’s intrados is welcoming. Both these structures could have been built around the same time because they both give off a very quaint feeling. The beginning structure of the bridge is not made up of steel, it is made from concrete. Most bridges are all entirely made up of metal. The fact that the foundation of this bridge is made up of concrete only makes it more historical. It shows the style of that era in Brooklyn so in other words, its a historic site.  One thing I noticed in Dumbo is that it has many buildings that are made out of brick and don’t look dilapidated. But around where I live, in Queens, there are also buildings made out of bricks, but they have steel frames and the new bricks, well, are new. The newly constructed buildings have bricks that are on the lighter side of orange but the ones in the Dumbo have a deep dark red color to it. You can distinguish how old a building may look simply by looking at the color and quality of it. The buildings that I saw around Pearl St Plaza had a dark red color to it and it had no alterations added. Each floor had rows of individual white painted windows. You don’t normally see this pattern anymore: dark red buildings with white windows. So, its all these small details that create the quaint feeling. Its the fact that these details are in juxtaposed with todays standards. For example, there is a Chase Bank building right at the corner or Front and Jay St. This building has metal exterior and its design is very contemporary and It also has large windows with metal frames. This building, when juxtaposed to the buildings near it, will be easily concluded as a modern building because its not made up of bricks with white frame windows.

To be honest, I chose this area in Brooklyn because its the only area that came to mind. I was also a bit curious as to see what the fuzz was about now that I was actually in Brooklyn. In his memoir,City Kid, Nelson George talks about his transition from Queens to Brooklyn and how it affected him as a whole. “Yet, as I came to understand the place where mentoring, criticism, and producing overlapped….I had a nurturing gene, that first manifested itself at 19 Willoughby, and that would blossom in the years ahead, and would, in fact, define my life, and self-image, as much as writing” (George, 182). What I learned from this quote is how the surroundings truly affect how you grow up and how it helps you as you grow up. Nelson’s new apartment was huge compared to the public housing he grew in as a child. That already is a change in comfort and that, along with the ambience he took in from the young African-American culture that was thriving during that era, helped his writing become more honest. He wasn’t making anything up, he was just writing what he saw and what he felt and understood from it. This is the same approach I took when writing this paper. The change that Dumbo helped me see what that history is all around us and it should be admired. Before, the Manhattan Bridge was just another bridge to me but now that I was able to stand right next to its foundation, I truly began to admire its existence.

Along with Nelson George, Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York, also sheds light on how we all have our own personal New York City. “You start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it” (Whitehead). My own New York City is still in the works. I never have gotten around much in all my years living in this city but it seems like that is slowly starting to change. I would never go into the city but now my job is located in the epicenter of New York madness: Time Square. College is an entirely new experience to me and its located in an entirely new borough as well. I’m slowly finding myself exploring the areas around these locations and it is helping me understand that I have been taking the whole NYC area for granted. There are many locations with wonderful views and rich history that could leave a person in awe. Also, as humans, it is in our nature to move and explore and I believe that many people are not doing so. They are so consumed with todays technology that they never leave their home or are completely unaware that places like the Brooklyn Heights Promonade exist. Every new locations I come across is a new brick added to my personal city. Our city is like no ones else because it only exists through our eyes. Dumbo is now my own personal spot to enjoy a sunny day out in Brooklyn.

Works Cited

George, Nelson. City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success. New York: Viking, 2009. Print.

Whitehead, Colson. The Colossus of New York. S.l.: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007. Print.

A Tale of Stone and Glass

A wall made of stone is seen by many as an unmovable or impenetrable object created and used in a time long passed. Something you may find half destroyed in the English countryside or redone in the German alps. Although stone is seen as a worse material to be used today by most, it still holds its place in our minds. Because of its nature as a difficult material to work and transport in older times, we still see it as it was back then. Therefore it is a statement to have it used in modern day construction. It brings with it the imagery of knights in armor, royal beauty and splendor and a sense of sternness. Also unlike brick, stone can be worked on to have magnificent carvings and figures. That is what you see when you look upon the Federal building and post office which is behind City Tech and across Adams St. A beautiful white and gray stone building with a 5 story tower, arches above every window, gate towers at the entrance with an eagle carved above and lion heads on the towers themselves. There is a small discrepancy between the original build in 1891 and the expansion added in 1933, which could be seen as juxtaposition in itself. The original has more detail on the face of it with arches, towers and engraving. The newer section is more focused on functionality and having less of the style found on the old while trying to stay close to it. Then there is the fact that is it both a courthouse and the base of operations for Brooklyn’s post service.

However, upon learning of it’s function as a courthouse one can not help and glance at the Kings County Supreme Family Court that towers over the Federal Building and outshines it as well. The reason for this is simply time and advances in construction technology. However, for all the advantages in speed and ease of construction, there is a loss of style and grandeur. We are capable of rising a skyscraper from below ground level in the same amount of time that a small house in the 1700’s would be complete. Nevertheless our buildings are simple, uniform and have no identity. The few that are not are spread over the entire globe and still are identical inside. It is true that you can not make sculptures out of glass 5o feet or higher in the air which needs to be flat to function as windows. However, that did not stop the Empire State building or the Chrysler building from going down a different path. This was not the case with the Kings County Family Court which is a vertical rectangular prism comprised mainly of glass. The external surface is cold glass and exposed steel beams and there are long but thin sections of beige brick that run parallel to them. This could reflect the nature of operations within the building one being Family court and the other being Supreme court. However, it comes across as a loss of self identity. This can be seen in Colson Whitehead`s New York in City Limits in his line “that titan squatting over Grand Central is the Met Life Building, and for her it will always be. She is wrong, of course– when I look up there I clearly see the gigantic letters spelling out Pan Am” and in his other line “look: there’s the Empire State Building, over there are the Twin Towers”. The Twin Towers, the pride of New York. They may have been even simpler than the Kings County Supreme Family Court, however, they were different. They were bold, strong, seen, and lean. The light would glem off them even before the sun seen over the horizon. They were in Manhattan but we saw them from Brooklyn.

Now the Federal building and post office also have a dual purpose, however, its exterior does not reflect that split and has a monotone color outside. Looking at it does not give any clues on what happens inside and unlike the modern buildings it does not state what it is with great steel letters for all to see. It is carved in stone near the far end of the building, unseen by most that pass by everyday. It is subtle in that way ironically given the grand designs that adorn it. Imagine what it would be like if we changed the two buildings, stone into glass and steel and the reverse. Now we would have an average height modern steel and glass structure and an old but well adorned stone skyscraper. This seem to fit better then what there is now in a way. An old stone citadel that has lasted through the age of steel and still serves the people below as a place of equality and justice. However, it is slowly being replaced by the newer glass and steel courthouse that also function as a post office. Now the outside matches the purpose within in it’s completely separate orientations.

However it was not always so, The melodrama, “The Two Orphans” was playing on the stage of the Brooklyn theatre on December 5, 1876 with a full house in attendance. Over a thousand people were packed inside with most of them in the upper gallery seats, comprised of families and large groups of people that came to see the show at an affordable price. The show had become quite popular and had been going on for some time, however that night’s performance at the Brooklyn theatre would be different. At 11:15 PM, shortly after the opening of the last act, a fire broke out, apparently caused by scenery touching the gas lights. A common problem with gas lamps inside structures back in the days of wooden frame and floors, especially a stage with props and backdrops. Much like the Titanic after itself the theater staff and performers were slow to respond to and inform the audience of the danger. Then when the fire started raging so did the people started panicking and running for the only two exits. The building had three levels of seats and only one staircase that ran the height of the building. These factors led to people collapsing down the steps and being trampled, adding to the jam that already existed. Many on the upper level died of asphyxiation or when the building finally collapsed on itself in fifteen to twenty minutes. Over 300 died that night, most of them being families and the not so well off.

Today all you will see a beautiful white and gray stone building with a 5 story tower, arches above every window, gate towers at the entrance with an eagle carved above and lion heads on the towers themselves. The purpose of this building is more public than it exterior would led us to believe, it is the base of operations for Brooklyn’s post service and a court house. It has been so since 1891 and since that time no sign of the those who died or the event itself can be seen near or on the site.

There is a dark side to stone that many forget, in the early days before steel frames there was oak and maple. Before electricity there was gas and oil, before that was open flame. This was the problem that stone faced, outside it was strong and feared nothing but its own within. This was the downfall of many buildings including full wood, early brick and lime and most other types of materials.

A Tale of Stone and Glass

Works Cited:
Whitehead, Colson. “City Limits.” The Colossus of New York [New York City] n.d.: n. pag. Print.