Green-Wood Cemetery
The Basics
A US National Historic Landmark since 2006, Green-Wood Cemetery extends over rolling lawns speckled with trees and ponds and is the final resting place of many famous New Yorkers. Admission is free, and visitors can wander the pathways as they wish to view the richly sculpted Victorian-era mausoleums, tombs, and vaults, as well as the later memorials and gravestones. Green-Wood also runs daytime and evening trolley tours and themed walking tours.
Among the must-see graves are those of 20th-century composer Leonard Bernstein, stained-glass artist Louis Tiffany, telegraph inventor Samuel Morse, and members of the piano-making Steinway family—the latter interred in Green-Wood’s biggest mausoleum.
Things to Know Before You Go
Green-Wood is a must for American history buffs and those wanting to escape Manhattan’s bustle.
Wear comfortable shoes: The cemetery is vast.
Allow about two hours to see the key graves and absorb the nature and views.
Free cemetery maps and restrooms are available at the main entrance.
The cemetery’s pathways are largely wheelchair- and stroller-accessible, although some are narrow and steep.
How to Get There
Green-Wood is easily accessible via New York’s subway: Catch a train first to Brooklyn’s Atlantic/Barclay Center, and then take the R train to 25th Street station, from where you can walk straight along 25th Street to the main entrance. Drivers will find free parking at the cemetery.
Trip ideas
When to Get There
Green-Wood has four gates—with slightly varying opening times—but most visitors use its main entrance at 5th Avenue and 25th Street. The cemetery is busiest on weekends, so visit during the week if you prefer to explore with fewer people around.
Look Beyond the Graves
Green-Wood’s graves aren’t its only attraction. Admire the main entrance’s Gothic Revival–style gate and the cemetery’s Civil War Soldiers’ Monument and statue of Minerva—her arm raised as if waving to the Statue of Liberty, visible across New York Bay. Green-Wood is also a bird-watcher’s haven: Look for the blue-green parakeets in the main entrance’s spires and for heron, egret, and sandpipers around its ponds.
- Things to do in New York
- Things to do in New York City
- Things to do in Long Island
- Things to do in Philadelphia
- Things to do in Boston
- Things to do in Salem
- Things to do in Washington DC
- Things to do in Williamsburg
- Things to do in Buffalo
- Things to do in Niagara Falls
- Things to do in Niagara Falls & Around
- Things to do in Pittsburgh
- Things to do in Montreal
- Things to do in Pennsylvania
- Things to do in Massachusetts
- Sunset Park
- Sunset Park
- Prospect Park
- Carroll Gardens
- Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch (Central Library)
- Grand Army Plaza
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- Brooklyn Museum
- Flatbush Avenue
- Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
- Barclays Center
- Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
- New York Transit Museum
- Brooklyn Tabernacle
- Brooklyn Heights