Updated November 3, 2026 · by the Stride Stories team · every fact checked against a source
Prospect Park is Brooklyn's great green space, and its drive loop is one of the best runs in New York. The park covers 526 acres. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the designers of Central Park, laid it out, and the first section opened in 1867. The two felt they had greater success in Brooklyn, partly because there were fewer obstacles.
This guide follows our tour Thanksgiving Loop: Prospect Park, a 3.83-mile run that starts and ends at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch on Grand Army Plaza. It heads down the West Drive, crosses on the Center Drive past Quaker Hill, swings around the south end and comes back up the East Drive. We made it with Thanksgiving morning in mind, but it runs just as well any day of the year.
Before you go: practical tips
- Know the distance. The pedestrian lanes of the East and West Drives form a paved loop of 3.36 miles. Our tour adds the run in and out from the arch and takes the Center Drive across, for 3.83 miles in all.
- Enjoy the quiet. The West Drive closed to traffic in 2015, and cars were barred from the park completely in January 2018. All of the drives are designated as protected bike lanes, so stay in the lane for people on foot and keep an eye out for bikes.
- Save something for the north end. A retreating glacier left a string of hills and hollows in the northern part of the park and a lower-lying plain in the south. Expect most of your climbing in the northern half of the loop, and easier going around the lake.
- Want company or a change of pace? The Prospect Park Track Club, formed in 1970, organizes regular training runs and races in and around the park.
The loop, stop by stop
Mile 0: Grand Army Plaza
You set off from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch, which honors the men who fought for the Union in the Civil War. General William Tecumseh Sherman laid the cornerstone in 1889, and President Grover Cleveland led the dedication in 1892. You'll see it properly at the finish.
Mile 0.7: The Lena Horne Bandshell
Look for the big outdoor stage beside the Harmony Playground. The bandshell went up on the eve of World War II, and in the 1940s and '50s Benny Goodman and Cab Calloway drew large crowds here. In June 2021 it was renamed for Lena Horne, the Brooklyn-born entertainer. Every summer it hosts concerts for the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! festival, which began in 1979.
Mile 1.3: The Friends Cemetery
Look for a fenced patch of woods with small, plain stones. This is a Quaker burial ground, and it's said to be the only private property in the park. The park was simply built around it: the Society of Friends gave its unused land to the park and kept 10 acres for its cemetery. The actor Montgomery Clift is buried here.
Mile 1.6: Prospect Park Lake
The open water with its wooded islands is Brooklyn's only lake, about 60 acres. It isn't natural. The whole watercourse is man-made, apart from part of one stream. Vaux pushed to enlarge the park so a big lake could be dug, one particularly suitable for skating, and in the 19th century it boasted a larger skating area than Central Park. Red balls raised on the fronts of trolley cars meant the ice was at least four inches thick.
Mile 2.0: The Grecian Shelter
Beside the drive, facing the lake, stands a long row of twenty-eight marble columns. The Grecian Shelter was completed in 1905 by McKim, Mead & White, and the city's Landmarks Commission calls it a masterpiece of neo-classic architecture. The original plans call it the Croquet Shelter. Why, nobody knows: all the croquet in the park was played on the Long Meadow, at the other end.
Mile 3.2: Battle Pass
Up the East Drive, look for a bronze eagle on a stone shaft, the Dongan Oak Monument, and a boulder with a plaque on the west side of the drive. You're on a battlefield. On August 27, 1776, during the Battle of Long Island, American troops clashed with Hessian soldiers at this gap in the line of hills. The defenders cut down a large white oak to block the British advance, but the fight was over by late morning. Preserving the battlefield was one of the reasons given for creating the park.
Mile 3.8: The Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch
Back at the plaza, look up. The arch is 80 feet tall, and on top a four-horse chariot carries Columbia, the female figure who stands for the United States. The group weighs about 25 tons. An $8.9 million restoration was finished in June 2025. The two pedestals on the arch's north side still stand empty.
A second option: Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park
Want something shorter? Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park is a 2.92-mile run. It circles the plaza past the Central Library, first proposed in 1888 and nearly six decades in the building, then heads out along Eastern Parkway to the Brooklyn Museum and back. Into the park through Endale Arch, you run down the Long Meadow, a lawn more than a mile long, planned to give an impression of infinite space. Then on to the Boathouse on the Lullwater, which the Parks Department came within 48 hours of demolishing in 1964, and the Lefferts Historic House, the oldest structure in the park.
© OpenStreetMapHear it as you run
You can run this loop with a map and this page. Or let the stories come to you: in the Stride Stories app, Thanksgiving Loop: Prospect Park plays six short stories as you reach each place, timed to your pace. Your music drops under each story and comes back after, and there's an optional soundtrack that opens with the Vince Guaraldi Trio's "Thanksgiving Theme." The tour page estimates 36 minutes of running, which leaves plenty of the day for the big meal.
© OpenStreetMapRunning in Manhattan too? See our Central Park loop running guide and our guide to running the Brooklyn Bridge, or browse more NYC running routes with a story at every mile.
How long is the Prospect Park running loop?
The pedestrian lanes of the East and West Drives form a paved loop of 3.36 miles. Our tour, with the run in and out from Grand Army Plaza, is 3.83 miles.
Is Prospect Park car-free?
Yes. Cars have been barred from the park completely since January 2018, and all of the drives are designated as protected bike lanes. Stay in the lane for people on foot and watch for cyclists.
Is the Prospect Park loop hilly?
The hills are in the northern part of the park. The south end, around the lake, sits on a lower-lying plain.
Can I run the Thanksgiving Loop on other days?
Yes. It was made with Thanksgiving morning in mind, but the route and stories work any day of the year.
Hear the stories as you pass them
Stride Stories plays each place's story as you reach it, timed to your pace, and lowers your music while it talks. Tours download to your phone and work without a connection.