Category Archives: Brooklyn Bridge Park Submissions, Tuesday Class

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Historic/Heritage Tourism

Heritage and historical tourism describes all tourist trips that include cultural activities, as well as experiences and interaction with local people.

Some of the observations I made was that on the waterfront there was Plaques on The Fulton Ferry Landing. There is also a poem in the railing that was the “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” written by Walt Whitman.

Janeā€™s Carousel
-I think that the carousel is unique because it was the only one of its kind and it was on the verge of being separated and all the individual pieces were going to be bought by different people when the couple Jane and David Walentas bought it for $385,000 to keep the carousel as a whole.
-The carousel that was made in the 1920s was auctioned off and bought in the year 1984 when Idora Park in Ohio closed down. The carousel was then moved to Brooklyn Bridge Park for its renovations and touch-ups. The restoration of this carousel took 27 years and it finally opened on sept 16 2011. Jane walentas ended up creating a non profit entity for the carousel called ā€˜friends of janes carouselā€ and she even donated 3.45 million to landscaping and improvements to Brooklyn bridge park development corporation. Lastly in October 2012 the carousel was shut down for a while due to minor flooding from hurricane sandy but reopened a few months later.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Cultural Tourism- is the subset of tourism concerned with a country or region’s culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographic areas, the history of those people, their art, architecture, religion, and other elements that helped shape their way of life.

In Brooklyn Bridge Park and DUMBO you can find a lot of cultural type of tourism.

Those are just few examples:

  • The Fence – 1,000 foot photographic installation that stretches from Empire Fulton Ferry in Dumbo to Pier 5. 40 photographers captured the essence of ” community”Ā falling within the categories of HOME, STREETS, PEOPLE, CREATURES and PLAY.
  • Waterfront History Signage- highlights the park’s past, as well as fun facts about its ecology and sustainability.
  • Syfy movies with the view – Movies With A View takes place every Thursday evening in July and August. There is no better place to be than watching a classic film and enjoying the breeze off of the East River from Harbor View Lawn with the dazzling Manhattan skyline before you.
  • Shakespeare at Sunset- free performance in outdoor theater for those who loves Shakespeare!

The visit to Brooklyn Bridge Park was great! It was really cold and I was really skeptical about it at first but during the visit I changed my mind. It was great to learn all those amazing facts about the park, I been in NYC for a few years and i didn’t know all those information. I would love to see a movie under the stars and now I know where I can have this experience. There was a Cafe on the water and I’m sure eating there with the view of Manhattan has to be something unique. Afterwards we walked through the Park to “Brooklyn Roasting Company”, where we met with the owner of the place. He told us so many facts about coffee, how decaffeinated coffee is created and the areas that has the best coffee. He takes his coffee from Peru and they promote fair trade which is really important. The owner told the class about the begging of the company and how his love for coffee started. We got a chance to sample some of their coffee from Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia. This was really interesting trip and I’m looking forward to future field trips.

BBP, Site Visit

It was a cold day but a productive one. One thing that was important to me on this day was that Ambar came on the site visit with us. A senior’s perspective is often different than that of new students, neither one better than the other, just different.

I also appreciated the contributions made by so many students. Learning about art, food, history and more along the waterfront can lead to increased tourism and for us that means jobs and opportunity.

Finally, the stop at Brooklyn Roasting was important. Without local business owners opportunites for tourism are limited. They have changed with the waterfront and I suspect they will change even more.