A Walk Through Downtown Brooklyn to Prospect Heights June 28, 2018

One of the things that I wanted to do with this blog was to give you all a little view into some of the sights that I come across when taking some of my walks. I knew that this past Tuesday I would have a busy day/night at Finn's Corner (660 Washington Avenue corner of Bergen Street) where in case you don't know, I bartend every Tuesday night.

Since Tuesdays are my late night, I often find it hard to get my steps in since I try to rest before my shift. But this week I decided to throw all caution to the wind and take a walk from Downtown Brooklyn, through the Brooklyn Promenade to the bar, which is in Prospect Heights.

While I tracked my walk through the FitBit App with the GPS on, I couldn't get a map of the route that I took. But I did snap this awesome picture of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower which is located at 1 Hanson Place and at one time was the tallest building in Brooklyn. In total I walked roughly three miles in 62 minutes burning 709 calories.

Walking from the Borough Hall Station, I walked down Montague Street to get a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

The sight of the lower Manhattan skyline is always amazing, especially with the clear blue sky in the background. But seeing the city from this POV is always bittersweet to me. I remember back on the days after September 11, 2001 when I went down to the same area to photograph the skyline.

There were many "Have you seen" and "Missing" leaflets throughout the many lightposts on the promenade for those trying to find their lost friends and relatives due to the attacks on the Twin Towers. The skyline itself looked gloomy due to the amount of dust that still hung in the air many, many days after. While I don't have those pictures handy at the moment (in addition to the ones of the skyline) trust me when I say that the skyline without the iconic Twin Towers of the World Trade Center looked like someone who got their two front teeth knocked out. While the sight is definitely different almost 17 years later, it's good to see my hometown pick itself up after a devastating blow.

But I kept walking around many of the small side streets lined with cobblestone. There was a point where the cobblestones in NYC were being paved over back in the late 80's and early 90's. It's great to see that many of these small tree lines streets are being repaved with cobblestones as they were decades and even centuries ago.

Hitting Atlantic Avenue, I headed east passing the aforementioned Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower and came across the Barclays Center.

What's always interesting to me about the Barclays Center is that if history would have played out differently, it's possible that a version of Ebbets Field would be at this exact location, with the Dodgers still being the Brooklyn Dodgers.

For those of you who don't know, before the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles, Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley wanted to build his new stadium for the Dodgers on almost the exact area where Barclays was built. A political pissing contest ensued between O'Malley and the man known as the "Power Broker" Robert Moses. Long story short, Moses offered O'Malley the then unused area of Flushing Meadows Park for the soon to be built Flushing Meadows Park Municipal Stadium. Malley balked and took his ball and team to the brighter pastures of Los Angeles. Never heard of Flushing Meadows Park Municipal Stadium? It was more famously known as Shea Stadium, home of the future New York Mets.

It really is one of Baseball's biggest "What If's". How different would MLB and Brooklyn be today had the Dodgers remained in Brooklyn. Thanks to Moses and O'Malley we'll never know.

You can read more about this from the article The story behind the Brooklyn Dodgers' move to Los Angeles by David Hinckley from the New York Daily News dated August 14, 2017, As well as my own post from my BaseballSisco blogspot entitled Dodgers Play Last Home Game as Brooklyn Dodgers September 24, 1957 dated September 24, 2014.

And with that I finished my jaunt at Finn's Corner. I love walking around NYC, trying to find historical tidbits and factoids that I can pass along to you fine ladies and gentlemen. Any suggestions of future walks for this summer? I'm all ears. Drop me a comment in the box below. Or swing by Finn's Corner on a Tuesday and we'll talk shop over a shot and a brew

Until Then Keep Stepping,
#SiscoVanilla
#SiscoVanillaIsStepping
#SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks