It won't cost you a dime, however, to walk the charming streets of this area and marvel at the well-preserved homes of a neighborhood that was declared one of the country's first historic districts in 1965.
Brooklyn Heights feels to me like the Manhattan I'd always seen in the movies -- the Manhattan of the 1950s and early '60s, that charmed moment of prosperity and peace between war and riots. The Manhattan of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Rear Window."
When you walk down these streets at dusk on a warm evening, a magic descends and blankets everything not with the frenetic buzz of Manhattan isle but with a calm happiness. It's like being the invited guest at a very special party. People pass one another laughing on the streets.
My fiancee, Rie, captured the essence of the difference between Manhattan and Brooklyn one evening as we walked back through the Heights after dinner. "People stroll here," she said. "Nobody strolls in Manhattan."
So take your time -- you won't get elbowed off the sidewalk if you stop to look at the many historic churches lining the streets.
Once known as the City of Churches for the clusters of spires that defined its skyline, Brooklyn still has numerous historic churches dotting the borough.
At 75 Hicks St. stands Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, where famed abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, the brother of writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, led the congregation in 1847. Beecher would hold mock slavery "auctions" at the church, where congregation members would contribute to buy the freedom of real slaves.
The 1840s Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity at 157 Montague St. contains thousands of square feet of stained glass windows, including 64 windows by William Jay Bolton, considered the oldest American-made stained glass windows produced.
Sadly, time has taken its toll on the church, which was placed on the World Monuments Fund's Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites in 2002.
Walking west, you'll come to the charming riverside Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
Try to ignore the scraggly roar of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway coursing nearby and gaze across the river at that certain special beauty that Manhattan has -- from a distance.
Downtown Brooklyn
WITH its scattering of skyscrapers and hulking government buildings, downtown Brooklyn seems too urban to have scenic value, but look down Court Street and you'll see the turrets of what has to be the grandest castle-cum-post office in the Western Hemisphere. The General Post Office is housed in a 19th century confection that was built as a federal courthouse.
