Cadman Plaza

Cadman Plaza is a long park and public square in Brooklyn that links Brooklyn Heights with the Civic Center and the Brooklyn Bridge. It was carved out from 1935 onward during the Robert Moses era of urban renewal, which condemned and demolished a dense block of warehouses, printers and tenements. The plaza is named after the ecumenical minister Samuel Parkes Cadman, a pioneer of Christian radio broadcasting in the United States. Its edges are framed by the heavy Art Deco federal and supreme courthouses and the 1848 Borough Hall. Today Brooklyn commuters cross it on their way to the subway, families use it as a playground, and protests gather here. For walkers heading to the Brooklyn Bridge it is the natural five-minute approach to the pedestrian ramp.