[title]
Over the holidays, two women, Miss Manhattan and Miss Brooklyn, decided to give downtown Brooklyn a spin—and they haven't stopped twirling. These bright (literally) beauties are statues created Brian Tolle, the artist who also created the Irish Hunger Memorial in Manhattan. Though they had a decidedly modern flair—the statues are lit from within by LED lights at night and rotate slowly on a tall lamppost-like structure—they are replicas of two statues that originally greeted travelers by the Manhattan Bridge in the early 20th century.
The original Miss Manhattan and Miss Brooklyn were sculpted by Daniel Chester French, the artist behind the Lincoln Memorial, and were removed from their perch in the '60s by city planner Robert Moses when he wanted to create more car lanes in the area. French's creations can still be seen today if you follow Flatbush Avenue further into the borough to Eastern Parkway at the Brooklyn Museum.
Though this portion of downtown Brooklyn near Flatbush Avenue and Tillary had some rough decades following Moses' remodeling, the neighborhood has been revitalized in recent years. Check out the statues below: