Flatbush Avenue is one of the major avenues in the New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 Borough

Borough (New York City)

New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...

 of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

. It runs from the Manhattan Bridge

Manhattan Bridge

The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn . It was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges...

 south-southeastward to Jamaica Bay

Jamaica Bay

Jamaica Bay is located on the southwestern tip of Long Island in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, and the town of Hempstead, New York/hamlet of Inwood...

, where it joins the Marine Parkway Bridge

Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge

The Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge in New York City is a vertical lift bridge that crosses Rockaway Inlet and connects the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, with Marine Parkway to Floyd Bennett Field, Flatbush Avenue, and the Marine Park neighborhood in Brooklyn...

, which connects Brooklyn to the Rockaway Peninsula

Rockaway, Queens

The Rockaway Peninsula, informally The Rockaways, is the name of a peninsula of Long Island, all of which is located within the New York City borough of Queens. A popular summer resort area since the 1830s, Rockaway has become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods...

 in Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

. The north end was extended to the Manhattan Bridge as "Flatbush Avenue Extension."

The diagonal path of Flatbush Avenue creates a unique street pattern in every neighborhood it touches. It is the central artery of the borough, carrying traffic to and from Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 past landmarks such as Junior's

Junior's

Junior's is a restaurant at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn . The restaurant also has an outlet inside Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, one in the Times Square area, and one in the hotel lobby of MGM Grand at Foxwoods in...

, Long Island University

Long Island University

Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...

, the Fulton Mall

Fulton Mall

Fulton Mall is a pedestrian street and transit mall in Downtown Brooklyn that runs on Fulton Street between Flatbush Avenue and Adams Street...

, the Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

, the Long Island Rail Road

Long Island Rail Road

The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...

's Atlantic Terminal at Times Plaza

Times Plaza

Times Plaza is the historical name for the intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Fourth Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The area came to be called Times Plaza for the nearby offices of the Brooklyn Daily Times...

, Grand Army Plaza, the Brooklyn Public Library

Brooklyn Public Library

The Brooklyn Public Library is the public library system of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is the fifth largest public library system in the United States. Like the two other public library systems in New York City, it is an independent nonprofit organization that is funded by the...

, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Park Slope neighborhoods, the garden includes a number of specialty "gardens within the Garden," plant collections, and the Steinhardt Conservatory,...

, Prospect Park, Erasmus Hall High School

Erasmus Hall High School

Erasmus Hall Campus High School is a four-year public high school in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States operated by the New York City Department of Education....

, Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...

, and Floyd Bennett Field

Floyd Bennett Field

Floyd Bennett Field is New York City's first municipal airport. While no longer used as an operational commercial, military or general aviation airfield, the New York Police Department still flies its helicopters from its heliport base there...

. Flatbush Avenue is the border of Prospect Heights

Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

Prospect Heights is a neighborhood in the northwest of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The traditional boundaries are Flatbush Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Eastern Parkway to the south, and Washington Avenue to the east...

 / Park Slope

Park Slope, Brooklyn

Park Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...

 and many other neighborhoods.

Other main Brooklyn throughfares start at Flatbush Avenue, including Ocean Avenue

Ocean Avenue (Brooklyn)

Ocean Avenue is a major street in Brooklyn, New York that runs generally north-south and occupies the position of East 20th Street in the Brooklyn street grid, with East 19th Street to its west and East 21st Street to its east for most of its path. It runs east of and parallel to Ocean Parkway and...

, Linden Boulevard

Linden Boulevard

Linden Boulevard is a boulevard in New York City. It starts off at Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and stretches through both Brooklyn and Queens. This boulevard, especially the area of Cambria Heights between Springfield Boulevard and the Nassau County line represents a smaller version of shopping...

, Empire Boulevard, Eastern Parkway, and Utica Avenue.

Flatbush Avenue is a four-lane street throughout the majority of its run, but south of the intersection with Utica Avenue near Kings Plaza

Kings Plaza

Kings Plaza is a shopping center that opened in 1970, within the Marine Park/Mill Basin section of Brooklyn, east of Flatbush Avenue. Owned by Vornado Realty Trust, Kings Plaza originally hosted the now-defunct Alexander's , as well as Macy's department store chains...

, it is an eight-lane median-divided street, making it one of the widest "avenues" in New York City.
Flatbush Avenue is the main thoroughfare through the Borough of Brooklyn. It was originally an Indian trail that took advantage of a low point in the terminal moraine that forms the spine of Long Island, running roughly along what is now the eastern edge of Prospect Park. A monument beside the former Flatbush Road, now inside the park, commemorates an attempt to block the road during the Battle of Long Island

Battle of Long Island

The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the United States Declaration of Independence, the largest battle of the entire conflict, and the...

. Historic homes line the neighborhoods around the avenue, which in the late 1920s was straightened to its current form. Streets such as Amersfort Place that are remnants of old parts of the avenue remain in the city grid as an echo of the past.

Flatbush Avenue is served by the B41

Flatbush Avenue Line (surface)

The Flatbush Avenue Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running along Flatbush Avenue between Downtown Brooklyn and Marine Park...

 bus line (formerly a trolley line) and the Q35 bus line, which goes to Rockaway Beach

Rockaway Beach, Queens

Rockaway Beach is a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the South Shore of Long Island. The neighborhood is bounded by Arverne to the east and Rockaway Park to the west...

 via the Marine Parkway Bridge. Many subway lines run under the avenue in Downtown Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City , and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn...

, and the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line

IRT Nostrand Avenue Line

The IRT Nostrand Avenue Line is a rapid transit line of the IRT division of the New York City Subway, and is served by the at all times, joined by the trains on weekdays, running under Nostrand Avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn....

terminates southward at the Flatbush/Nostrand station at Brooklyn College.