Grand Army Plaza - the central area of ​​Brooklyn, draws the northern entrance to Prospect Park. Here comes the main street of Brooklyn Flatbush Avenue, seething traffic flows. It makes sense to explore a huge oval space: the area is full of historical monuments.

The architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux area created in 1867 specifically as the main entrance to the park. It is well named: Prospect Park Plaza. However, in 1926, sixty years of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of veterans of the Civil War, and the area was renamed the Grand Army Plaza. In New York, in Manhattan, there is another area with exactly the same name, but it is given in honor of the Army Civil War hero General Sherman.

Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza - a major transport interchange area, its nerve center. Traffic here is that to get to the monuments is not easy, especially since the center of the square leads single transition. But there is something to see.

Since the appearance of the area it has become the centerpiece of a fountain continually changed over the decades. In 1867, he had only one jet in 1873 it replaced the dome with water color highlights. In 1897 he made an electric lighting, people willingly admired the spectacle, but in 1915 due to construction of the metro station "Electric Fountain" eliminated. In 1932, then we put Plural Bailey Fountain, named after the philanthropist who gave him money.

The visual center of the square is now, without doubt, a triumphal arch, erected in memory of the soldiers and sailors who defended the North during the Civil War. She established in 1892 by the architect John Duncan Hemingway. The inner surfaces of the arches are decorated with bas-reliefs of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant (the work of sculptor William Rudolf O'Donovan), in 1895 the construction crowned winged goddess of victory, and next appeared sculptural groups symbolizing the army and navy (they carved Frederick MakMoniz).

On the square you can see a host of monuments and Brooklyn banker philanthropist Henry Maxwell, the generals of the Civil War governor Warren Campbell and Henry Warner Slocum, gynecologist Alexander Skene Johnston, builder James Stranahanu (one of the founders of the nearby park Propekt). And nearby in 1965 he was set modest bust of John F. Kennedy - the only official memorial of the deceased president in New York.

At Grand Army Plaza Brooklynites celebrate Christmas and New Year, arranging a huge fireworks display. And in the days of Chanukah then put one of the world's largest menorahs (menorahs) - 2, 5 meters tall.