Splendor and Scandal in Brooklyn Heights: A Self Guided Tour

There is no better view of Manhattan than from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. But while other just look, you hear it's story brought to life, and stand in the spot where Washington Roebling supervised construction of the Brooklyn Bridge by telescope from his bed after becoming paralyzed on the job.

Known as "The Grand Central Depot of the Underground Railroad." It was in here that Reverend Henry Ward Beecher -- "The Most Famous Man in America" -- held a live slave auction, raising money set a young woman free. This tour follows Beecher's story including his trial for adultery that gripped America.

All-volunteer woman-run nonprofit that helps homeless cats find furr-ever friends cats. For a small admission fee you can hang out with the feline residents

Designed by Minard Leferve, this gothic masterpiece contains stained glass windows so extraordinary that one is now displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You'll hear the church's dramatic backstory, from abandoned wreck in the 70's to incubator of a leading arts program and New York's finest prep school.

Brooklyn Height's main shopping street, home to the original Haagen Dazs, the Cat Cafe and the historic Heights Casino, with America's first indoor tennis courts.

ard Beecher, Truman Capote and Arthur Miller, plus the finest examples of the Queen Anne Style in NYC.

The first Romanesque church in America with bronze doors salvaged from the SS Normandie which sank dramatically in New York Harbor.

Now called the Center for Brooklyn History, this handsome Romanesque revival library was designed by George Post, "Father of the Tall Building."