Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names

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Visit the blog for the book at www.brooklynbyname.comView the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction."Fascinating morsels of Brooklyn history. . . . An entertaining, breezy compilation for the NYU Press, perfect for reading down at Coney, up on tar beach, or out on your shady front stoop this summer. . . .

So if you wanna know how Dead Horse Bay, Sheepshead Bay, Floyd Bennett Field, Smith St. Carroll Gardens, Junior's Restaurant, Green-Wood Cemetery, Gilmore Court or the Riegelmann Boardwalk got their names, grab a copy of Brooklyn by Name."
—New York Daily News"Information is well presented and well illustrated—both factors making this guide easy on the eye.

Hardly a location is left unexplored in this fascinating, indispensable guide to a borough undeservedly in Manhattan's shadow."
—Booklist"Witty, occasionally irreverent and always engaging, Brooklyn by Name takes readers from the six independent towns that once comprised Breuckelen to the modern metropolis.

Weiss and Benardo have uncovered surprising data and have woven a compulsively readable narrative. Pick it up, rifle through, and find out about—or be reminded of—the underpinnings of our borough?s heritage."
—The Brooklyn Rail"This book is an essential companion for anyone teaching about Brooklyn, for anyone writing about the borough, and for tour guide people.

Benardo and Weiss have to be pleased with their product, and clearly should be congratulated."
—Brooklyn Daily Eagle"Brooklyn streets, parks and sites are dripping with history, and husband-and-wife team Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss have hung them all out to dry in their dictionary of street smarts, Brooklyn By Name."
—Brooklyn Papers"A well-researched and concise compilation of the historical derivation of the place names in Brooklyn, an engaging stroll through the city?s largest borough and its history. . . .

The book is easy to pick up, and with its wide-ranging, often quirky fragments of Brooklyn history, hard to put down."
—Courier-Life Publications?An excellent guide to Brooklyn. Explaining Brooklyn?s often mystifying names (like Force Tube Avenue and Dead Horse Bay) allows the streets to speak their stories.

Walkers in the borough should not leave home without it.?
—Mike Wallace, co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898?An engaging stroll through the city?s largest borough and its history?
—Bay News "Uncovering the remarkable stories behind the landmarks, Brooklyn by name takes readers on a stroll through streets and places of this thriving metropolis to reveal the borough's textured past. —NYU Today"From Albemarle Road to Zion Triangle, the history of Brooklyn place names revealed in Brooklyn By Name is as fascinating as life in the County of Kings itself.

By putting faces to the names of our streets, parks, and neighborhoods, Benardo and Weiss bring to vibrant life hundreds of places where Brooklynites live, work, and play every day. Whether we?re called Breukelen, Brookland, or Brooklyn, there?s no place like it in the world!"
—Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President"This beautifully researched, lucidly written and compulsively readable book will have readers bouncing from entry to entry.

By focusing on the derivation of Brooklyn's place-names, the authors have subtly traced the borough's rich history of politics, power, greed and idealism."
—Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan?Taking off from neighborhood names, this page-turner of a book tells of the successive waves of settlers and immigrant arrivals who have given Brooklyn its distinctive flavor.

Here are the men and women whose fantasies, foibles, and otherwise-fleeting fame find permanency in the pavements, parks and place-names of the borough that almost wasn't part of New York.