From the Brooklyn Aerie: March 21, 2012
The Brooklyn Children’s Museum can boast of another “first” besides being the first children’s museum in the United States and possibly the world. As a result of a 2008 renovation it is the first museum in New York City to be heated and cooled by geothermal wells.
When you walk on the boardwalk at Breezy Point you are walking on wood from the fabled Manhattan Beach Hotel that was torn down in the early part of the 20th century.
William M. “Boss” Tweed wasn’t all bad even though through fraud and kickbacks at taxpayer expense he accumulated a fortune estimated to total $200 million. Among other things, he founded the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, raised funds for orphanages and public baths, and fought to get the land the American Museum of Natural History was built on. He was also the man the city fathers of Brooklyn hired to convince the New York state Legislature to grant the initial funds to start building the Brooklyn Bridge.