Continental Army Plaza

Continental Army Plaza is a triangular park at Division Avenue and South 5th Street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The plaza commemorates the Continental Army soldiers who fought in the Battle of Long Island (Battle of Brooklyn) in August 1776, the first major engagement after the Declaration of Independence.

The Battle of Long Island was the largest battle of the entire Revolutionary War, with approximately 40,000 soldiers engaged. The British defeated the Continental Army, but a masterful overnight evacuation across the East River, conducted in fog and silence, saved Washington's army from destruction and preserved the American cause.

The plaza features a monument and landscaped area at a busy intersection in Williamsburg. The neighborhood surrounding the plaza is home to a large Hasidic Jewish community (primarily Satmar), and the plaza sits at the border between the Hasidic and hipster sections of Williamsburg.

Williamsburg's dramatic cultural contrasts, with Hasidic families and trendy young professionals sharing the same streets, make it one of the most visually and socially distinctive neighborhoods in New York City. Continental Army Plaza sits at this cultural intersection.

The plaza connects modern Williamsburg to the revolutionary history that unfolded across Brooklyn in the summer of 1776, when the fate of the American experiment hung in the balance on the fields, hills, and shorelines of what is now Kings County.