Then and Now Thursday: The Prospect Expressway

Cutting a two-mile swath through Brooklyn before heading out through the rest of Long Island, the Prospect Expressway serves at the de facto border between Park Slope and the nebulous neighborhood just to its south, which some call the South Slope, others Greenwood Heights.

Looking northeast towards Fifth

The brainchild of (who else?) Robert Moses, it's a deep sunken trench of a highway and was constructed during the 1950s. The top photo was taken from the top of the Grand Prospect Hall (looking southwest), which was situated on a fairly glamorous block when it was first constructed in 1892. How times have changed!

Comments

[Ben K.]

How times have changed!

Or: My, how an unnecessary road construction project ripped apart a once glamorous block.

[Ruth]

My childhood home on the corner of 18th Street and 7th Avenue was torn down for this. Caused a great upset in my family's life since my parents had a delicatessen on the first floor of the building, so our livlihood and home were gone at the same time.