In a Noisy Brooklyn Park, the Best New Feature May Be a Wall

The construction of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in the mid-20th century was one of New York City über-planner Robert Moses’s proudest triumphs. The destruction the BQE subsequently brought to neighborhoods along the Brooklyn waterfront is today considered one of Moses's most reviled legacies. Moses dug a trench through Red Hook to carry his dream road, gutting a thriving immigrant community. Traffic roars along there still, exhaust pouring out of the ditch where the highway runs.

Farther north, the more affluent residents of Brooklyn Heights were able to prevent Moses from tearing up their neighborhood’s historic brownstones, which now routinely sell for millions of dollars. The BQE here clings to the bluff that gives the Heights their name, running under a pedestrian promenade that offers spectacular views of Manhattan.