Before picnicking here was banned, it was the second most-visited tourist attraction in New York State, luring 500,000 people every year in the 1860s, a number rivaled solely by Niagara Falls. In the heart of Brooklyn, folks would gather to enjoy the pastoral setting of the lush 478 acres, flush with countless varieties of trees and flowering shrubs, ponds, valleys, winding lanes, and open vistas from the highest natural point in Brooklyn of the surrounding communities and as far away as Manhattan. A few of these people might have even been there to acknowledge this place’s primary objective: a chance to visit their deceased friends and relatives buried within its grounds. Now, 181 years after it was founded, Green-Wood Cemetery remains one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world, and tourists still come to visit, whether or not they have ancestors resting here in peace. Read more >