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PARK FACT:
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Walt Whitman Park
Cadman Plaza East, Adams St. bet. Red Cross Pl. and Tillary St.
Brooklyn
Directions: Google Maps | MTA Trip Planner
Acres: 2.91
"A great city is that which has the greatest men and women,
If it be a few ragged huts it is still the greatest city in the whole world."
This park honors Walt Whitman (1819-1892), poet, journalist, and native New Yorker. Whitman’s vision of an optimistic and self-reliant America surpassed traditional Victorian boundaries and influenced later free thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).
Walt Whitman was born in Huntington, Long Island, where he lived with his family until 1823. Unable to support his household on a carpenter’s salary, Whitman’s father moved the family to the City of Brooklyn, where he enrolled his son in a local grammar school. Although souring economics forced the Whitmans to return to Long Island in 1833, young Walt stayed behind and took work as a printer’s apprentice, his first foray into the world of words.
Know Before You Go
The park is currently closed for construction. This project will transform the existing space into a green "urban oasis" in the heart of the Brooklyn Civic Center. The park will become a passive space with new flowering trees and shrubs. Landscaping along the new path system will entice visitors to relax in the park, while allowing easy access from one side of the park to the other.
Additional work includes new fencing, an improved drainage system that will allow water to nourish the landscape, new benches, a planted oval plaza, and an ornamental water feature.
Thank you for your patience as we improve your park.
Anticipated Completion: Winter 2012
