Lately, at the above-ground site for the new 95th Street subway station elevators, construction seems to be moving at a faster pace.
Viewing the action the other day amid the roar of a huge pile driver and other earth-moving equipment, it looks like they are breaking through at the exact location where the elevators will be operating. That’s just off the northwest corner of 95th Street and Fourth Avenue, adjacent to the 95th street side of the Fort Hamilton branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Like they did with the 86th Street station elevators, there will be two installed, one at street level going down to the mezzanine and the other operating underground from the mezzanine to the train platform.

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As first vice president and public relations director of the Society of Old Brooklynites, along with fellow board member Janet Skinner, we were invited to attend a meeting with the Friends of Fort Greene Park represented by Lucy Koteen with U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez.

The FFGP are asking Velazquez to try to secure federal jurisdiction by the Dept. of the Interior over the grounds surrounding the 149-foot-tall monument and the large crypt containing the remains of approximately 11,500 Prison Ship Martyrs (America’s first POWs) from the American Revolution.
The site is part of Fort Greene Park and is under the aegis of the NYC Parks Dept. FFGP feels the federal government would be better equipped to protect and honor the grounds as a sacred site that should be held in high regard and respect since it is the largest revolutionary burial ground in the nation.
It’s sad but true that skateboarders, perhaps not knowing the significance of this hallowed ground, continue to desecrate it. Velazquez said she would seek more information from fellow congressional colleagues, especially Hakeem Jeffries, who had been working on a similar effort before.