Brooklyn's spooky tours: Victorian trolley and cemetery walks
Experience Brooklyn's historic neighborhoods and eerie legends on Madame Morbid's trolley tours, featuring ghost stories and local lore. Credit: Matt Zaller
Long before Brooklyn became a destination for restaurants, shopping and nightlife, it was a patchwork of villages, cemeteries and old roads with plenty of stories to tell. This fall, some of those stories come back to life on tours that explore the borough's ghosts, crimes, legends and other curious chapters of its past.
Long Islanders can head to Brooklyn on the Long Island Rail Road or take a drive to explore its spooky side, from a Victorian trolley winding through historic neighborhoods to a nighttime tour of a sprawling cemetery.
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th St.; green-wood.com; 718-210-3080
Passengers board the Green-Wood Cemetery trolley tour in Brooklyn. Credit: Maike Schulz/Geen-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood's two-hour trolley tours roll through 478 acres of Gothic monuments, mausoleums and more than 570,000 graves, with an expert guide pointing out the cemetery's most notable residents. Stops include ground where George Washington's troops fought during the Battle of Brooklyn and the grave of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The trolley is heated, so it's a comfortable way to see the grounds on a chilly fall day and it suits first-timers and regulars alike (although it's not recommended for children under 10).
The cemetery also runs an after-hours walking tour that includes a rare chance to step inside the Green-Woods' catacombs, which are normally closed to the public. The walking tour ($30) lasts two hours, with 30-minute arrival time slots between 5 and 8 p.m. on weekends in October and November.
Cost: $30 per person
When: 1 p.m. Saturdays through Dec. 12. Tours last two hours.
Madame Morbid’s Trolley Tours
510 Driggs Ave.; madamemorbid.com
Step aboard a Victorian-style trolley for a ride through some of Brooklyn’s most historic neighborhoods. Madame Morbid’s Trolley Tours mixes sightseeing with local lore and legends, with stories of ghosts, murders, scandals and other strange happenings.
Riders travel through several Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Park Slope, Williamsburg, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Cobble Hill. Along the way, guides share some of the borough’s strangest and most unsettling stories, from ill-fated séances and deadly fires to other bizarre local legends. Keep an eye out for the headless ghost said to stalk the Brooklyn Bridge.
The 90-minute tour is not designed to be scary, and children are welcome.
Cost: $69 per person in October; $59 per person in November.
When: Wednesday to Friday 7 to 9 p.m.; Saturday to Sunday 4, 7, 9 p.m. through Nov. 15. Tours last 90 minutes.
Getting there from Long Island
By train: From Long Island, take the LIRR to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, then continue by subway or taxi/ride share to either tour. For Green-Wood Cemetery, the R train to 25th Street is especially convenient, with the cemetery’s main entrance a short walk away.
By car: Both tours are accessible by car from Long Island via the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Green-Wood has parking available near its entrances, while parking around Madame Morbid’s starting point in Williamsburg is primarily street or garage parking.
