Wonderful (though minor) tourist destination.  Thanks
for telling us about this one.
Regina Daly
--- Walter Greenspan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The following was submitted to the List
> Administrator on Friday afternoon, 
> November 24:
> 
> 
> Now almost forgotten, Evacuation Day was celebrated
> as a holiday long before 
> the Fourth of July:
> 
> On November 25, 1783, the British Army boarded their
> naval vessels and 
> evacuated New York City (then only coterminous with
> New York County), their wartime 
> headquarters and their last military position in the
> United States during the 
> Revolutionary War.
> 
> As the British sailed away south in retreat through
> the Narrows separating 
> Staten Island on the west and Long Island on the
> east, the last thing they saw, 
> as their ships sunk below the horizon, was the Flag
> of the United States of 
> America flying atop the Liberty Pole (an extended
> flag pole) in the frontyard of 
> the Dutch Reformed Church in the Hamlet of New
> Utrecht, Town of New Utrecht, 
> in the south-central part of of Kings County.  Today
> this location is at 
> Christopher Columbus Boulevard (18th Avenue) and
> Liberty Pole Boulevard (84th 
> Street) in the Bensonhurst neighborhood in the
> south-central part of the New York 
> City Borough of Brooklyn. (The NYC Borough of
> Brooklyn is coterminous with the 
> NYS Kings County).
> 
> Replaced six times over the years, the 106' Liberty
> Pole is the last 
> remaining Liberty Pole in the original thirteen
> United States.  On top of the Pole is 
> the original eagle and weathervane. The eagle is
> made of wood and has a 5' 
> wingspan. After two hundred and twenty-two years,
> the weather has weakened it 
> considerably and it has been reinforced with iron
> bands.
> 
> The eagle has looked over the bay and seen many
> sailing vessels, steamships 
> and war ships. It has been said that the eyes of
> this golden eagle has looked 
> upon more change in the world’s history than
> occurred from the days of 
> Nebuchadnezzar to the day when the eagle was raised.
> 
> Here's the URL for the New Utrecht Liberty Pole
> Association:
> http://www.historicnewutrecht.org/LPA.html
> 
> Here's the URL for the Dutch Reformed Church:
> http://www.newutrechtchurch.org/
> 
> 
> I hope this information is useful or, at least,
> interesting.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Walter Greenspan
> Great Falls, MT & Jericho, NY
> 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com