Cadman Plaza

The 10.384 acre Cadman Plaza Park, formerly known as ‘Brooklyn Bridge Plaza,’ was acquired by the City of New York in 1935. Once the site of the Sands Street Terminal of the elevated Rail, the land was redeveloped to accommodate the increase in automobile traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and the need for more green space in Brooklyn Heights.  Although there was much debate over the naming of the park (finalists included Henry Ward Beecher, John Roebling, and Walt Whitman), the park was officially named in 1939 after Reverend Dr. Samuel Parkes Cadman, a Brooklyn Congregational minister who became well known for his Sunday afternoon radio broadcasts in the 1920s and 1930s. In the early 1950s, Robert Moses led a redevelopment project in the park, which included the addition of the Brooklyn War Memorial. Completed in 1951, the monument designed by Charles Keck pays tribute to the 300,000 Brooklynites who served in WWII and features two large statues, one representing victory and the other family.