Photos: Brooklyn Naval Cemetery's Second Life as a Peaceful Public Park

After nearly a century closed to the public, the Brooklyn Naval Cemetery reopened at the end of May sporting new walkways, plantings, and signage. The revitalization of the Naval Cemetery Landscape is part of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative's mission to activate and create more public green space in its namesake borough.

Marvel Architects and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects designed the park to pay homage to the 2,000 naval officers and Marines laid to rest at the site (the known remains have since been exhumed and moved to Cypress Hills) with its winding observation path, memorial meadow, and "sacred grove."

The cemetery has also been planted with native wildflowers and other plant species intended to act as pollinators that will help promote the ecological health of the area.

Photographer Max Touhey visited the renewed green space and found it's just as peaceful as it sounds. The Naval Cemetery Landscape is open Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. through 8 p.m.

• Brooklyn Naval Cemetery Gets Second Life as Public Park [Curbed]
• Naval Cemetery Landscape [Brooklyn Greenway Initiative]
• Max Touhey [official]