Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
A border of tombs almost surrounds Brooklyn, for in the suburbs are
the great cemeteries which are the burial-places of both cities. In
lovely situations upon the surrounding hills are Greenwood, Cypress
Hills, Evergreen, Holy Cross, Calvary, Mount Olivet, The Citizens'
Union, Washington and other cemeteries, occupying many hundreds of
acres. Of these, the noted Greenwood is the chief, covering some four
hundred acres on Gowanus Heights, south of the city. This is a high
ridge dividing Brooklyn from the lowlands on the south side of Long
Island, and it has elevations giving charming views. The route to it
crosses various railroads leading to Coney Island, which is the
ultimate objective point of most Brooklyn lines of transit. A neat
lawn-bordered road leads up to the magnificent cemetery entrance on
Fifth Avenue, an elaborate and much ornamental brownstone structure
rising into a central pinnacle over a hundred feet high. This entrance
covers two fine gateways, with representations of Gospel scenes, the
principal being the Raising of Lazarus and the Resurrection. The
grounds display great beauty, the ridgy, rounded hills spreading in
all directions, the surface being an alternation of hills and vales,
vaults terracing the hillsides, with elaborate mausoleums above and
frequent little lakes nestling in the pleasant valleys. Vast sums have
been expended on some of the grander tombs, which are upon a scale of
great magnificence. The attractive rural names of the walks and
avenues, the delicious flowers and foliage, the balmy air, the lakes,
valleys and points of beautiful outlook giving grand views over New
York Bay and the surrounding country, make Greenwood a park as well as
a cemetery, and it is generally admitted to be without a peer. Many
costly pantheons and chapels cover the remains of well-known people,
and one mausoleum is a large marble church. A three-sided monument of
peculiar construction standing on a knoll marks the resting-place of
Samuel F. B. Morse, the telegrapher. Horace Greeley's tomb has his
bust in bronze on a pedestal. A colossal statue surmounts the grave of
the great De Witt Clinton, the Governor of New York who built the Erie
Canal and thus secured the commercial supremacy of the city. The
romantic career of Lola Montez ended in Greenwood. Commodore Garrison,
who was at one time Vanderbilt's rival in steamship management, is
interred in a mosque. The tomb of the Steinways is a large granite
building. A magnificent marble canopy crowns the Scribner tomb, having
beneath it an angel of mercy. There is an appropriate monument to
Roger Williams. Here are also buried Elias Howe, the inventor of the
sewing-machine, Peter Cooper, Henry Ward Beecher, James Gordon
Bennett, Henry George and others of fame. The Firemen, the Pilots and
the New York Volunteers all have grand monuments, the statue sentinels
of the latter overlooking the bay. Among these magnificent sepulchres,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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