9 Chapel Street, 6C Nine Chapel, Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Brooklyn has a skyline, too. It’s a beacon signaling the location of Downtown Brooklyn, a civic and commercial center enduring since before the famed borough was ever a borough. Downtown Brooklyn is best known today as the site of courthouses, municipal buildings, and the like (the imposing Greek Revival-style Borough Hall standing as the most notable). Over time, though, a residential flavor has emerged. Vintage rowhouses are met by condominiums and skyscrapers — each subsequent one taking Brooklyn to literal new heights as the borough’s tallest building. The area’s rise in stature mirrors neighboring Brooklyn Heights, with a 19th-century population boom owed to Robert Fulton’s invention of the steam ferry. People rode across the East River from Manhattan and never looked back — except to enjoy scenic vistas from the nearby waterfront or a perch up on high.