How Brooklyn's Longest Street Got Its Name: The Story Behind Bedford Avenue
From Greenpoint to Sheepshead Bay runs Brooklyn’s longest street, the borough-long Bedford Avenue.
From Greenpoint to Sheepshead Bay runs Brooklyn’s longest street, the borough-long Bedford Avenue. A populous main stretch spanning both residential and commercial areas, Bedford Avenue has inspired its own web series — The Bedford Stop, based on the eponymous subway station in Williamsburg — and historic district, among numerous other cultural developments.
The street got its name from the village of Bedford, which was located roughly at the intersection of what is now Bedford Avenue and Fulton Street, according to the Bedford Historic District designation report.
[instagram_embedding url="https://www.instagram.com/p/BIgKNqvA93"]What exactly the village of Bedford was named for is not clear. While many trace its roots to the English, either the town of Bedfordshire or the Duke of Bedford, some argue the word comes from the Dutch Bestevaar, meaning “the place where old men meet,” according to Leonard Bernardo and Jennifer Weiss’s Brooklyn By Name.
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