Bay Ridge
Neighborhood Intelligence

Bay Ridge occupies the southwestern edge of Brooklyn, overlooking the Narrows and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton and the bridge approach to the south. A summer-resort area in the nineteenth century, it developed into a residential neighborhood after 1916. Bay Ridge is known for its Norwegian community, though it also has Irish, Italian, Arab, and Greek communities, with smaller Chinese, Russian, and Eastern European populations.

The neighborhood combines rows of attached houses and small apartment buildings with single-family houses near the waterfront. Shore Road Park and the Shore Road promenade follow the water with views toward Staten Island, and Owl's Head Park and Leif Ericson Park are among its larger green spaces. The Narrows Botanical Gardens occupy the slope between Shore Road and the Belt Parkway, and the American Veterans Memorial Pier at 69th Street extends into the harbor. Our Lady of Angels Church on Fourth Avenue is one of its prominent landmarks, and Third Avenue and Fifth Avenue are its main commercial streets.