7. Calvary Cemetery is Part of the “Cemetery Belt” in New York City

In the 1830s and ’40s, a series of outbreaks (typhus, cholera, etc.) had plagued New York City, causing a huge spike in the number of deaths. Fearing the diseases from the buried deceased would contaminate the drinking water, the Common Council prohibited new interments of the departed in Manhattan in 1852.

The new regulation, coupled with the effects of The Rural Cemeteries Act of 1847, eventually lead to the establishment of the “Cemetery Belt,” a string of cemeteries (including Calvary Cemetery and the many along the Jackie Robinson Parkway) along the border of Brooklyn and Queens that is large enough to be seen from space.