Description
Bedford Avenue is the longest street in Brooklyn: 16 kilometers and 132 blocks from Greenpoint in the north to Sheepshead Bay in the south. Following it is a way to see how many different Brooklyns there are.
The best-known stretch is in Williamsburg, around the L train's Bedford Avenue station, with cafés, restaurants, boutiques and galleries. Further south come the brownstone rowhouses of Bedford–Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, then the single-family houses of Midwood and Sheepshead Bay.
Along the way the avenue crosses African-American, Caribbean, West African, Hasidic Jewish, Latin American, Russian and Polish neighborhoods. Two of its buildings, the Studebaker Building and the 23rd Regiment Armory, are city landmarks.
It began in the 18th century as Bedford Road, a country route between the farming village of Flatbush and Newtown Creek.
The best-known stretch is in Williamsburg, around the L train's Bedford Avenue station, with cafés, restaurants, boutiques and galleries. Further south come the brownstone rowhouses of Bedford–Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, then the single-family houses of Midwood and Sheepshead Bay.
Along the way the avenue crosses African-American, Caribbean, West African, Hasidic Jewish, Latin American, Russian and Polish neighborhoods. Two of its buildings, the Studebaker Building and the 23rd Regiment Armory, are city landmarks.
It began in the 18th century as Bedford Road, a country route between the farming village of Flatbush and Newtown Creek.