New York City Places

Waterfront Brooklyn

Brooklyn's waterfont encompasses two neighborhoods, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO, with their own distinct charms. Brooklyn Heights is the borough's toniest neighborhood, and offers residents something wealthy Manhattanites will never have: a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. First developed in the mid-1800s as the business center of the then-independent city of Brooklyn, the neighborhood is a terrific showcases of historic cobblestone streets lined with pristine brownstones.

A downhill walk away, the area called DUMBO, for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, was once known as Fulton Landing, after the inventor and engineer Robert Fulton, who introduced steamboat ferry service from Brooklyn to Manhattan in 1814. Factories and dry-goods warehouses thrived here until the Manhattan Bridge was completed in 1909. DUMBO then fell on hard times, but since the 1970s artists have been drawn by the historic warehouses for use as spacious studios. Today the area is full of luxury condos, art galleries, and small boutiques. Wander the old cobblestone streets for terrific photo ops (try to frame the Empire State Building within the anchorage of the Manhattan Bridge).