when I was 15.
Mounted to a plywood wall on a dead-end street about half a block from the notorious Gowanus Canal, this painting has seen better days.
Despite its reputation, the Gowanus Canal hosts a fair number of recreational boaters, most notably the Gowanus Dredgers, who refer to the waterway as "Brooklyn's coolest SuperFUNd site".
This is the so-called "wondrous blue bridge" we saw a few days ago. What's so wondrous about it, you ask? It's the city's other retractile bridge (link includes a diagram explaining how retractiles work), and the oldest such bridge still in existence in the US, having been opened in 1889. In addition, there are a couple other adorable features: the roadway surface (made of wooden planks), and the delightful sign posted above the bridge (playfully installed during a late-1980s rehabilitation): "Any Person Driving over this Bridge Faster than a Walk will be Subject to a Penalty of Five Dollars For Each Offence".
This system allows the Carroll Street Bridge (which operates just like the Borden Avenue Bridge) to slide open.
The eye-catching hue of Park Slope's famous not-so-brownstone may not be long for this world.
UPDATE (Dec. 3, 2012): The pink is gone!
Congregation Beth Elohim, where Sukkot is celebrated in high style
