South of Avenue P on Brooklyn’s lovely, leafy Ocean Parkway is a foot-high rectangle of granite sticking out of the ground, with a mysterious “3M” etched into its traffic-facing side.
This curious artifact is Ocean Parkway’s last remaining mile marker.
Before the 20th century, mile markers dotted major roads, letting coachmen and riders know how many miles they had traveled—and how many more they needed to go.
This mile marker was likely one of 11 placed at every half-mile from the Prospect Park Circle to Ocean Parkway’s end at Coney Island.
It probably dates back to the 1870s, when Ocean Parkway, inspired by the great boulevards of Paris and Berlin, was built.
Sheepshead Bites has more on the history of the mile marker—as well as the mysterious disappearance of another back in June.
Tags: Avenue P Brooklyn, Brooklyn streets, Coney Island history, Mile Marker Ocean Parkway, New York street, Ocean Parkway history, old highways Brooklyn
Ephemeral New York 
November 2, 2010 at 2:27 pm |
i was reading along and thought ‘i hope nobody takes it’ – when i see at the end that someone took another one! they should cement it into the ground right quick.
November 2, 2010 at 9:12 pm |
It should be blocked behind a small fence. This is Brooklyn history!
August 18, 2011 at 2:13 am |
In the 70’s when I was a teenager I fantasized about digging up one of the markers (there were more of them and yes, I had little social life) then I realized: what would I do with one once I had one? So I left them alone and in 1977 when OP was rebuilt, the city had most of them removed.
May 13, 2013 at 6:22 am |
[…] far as I know, there’s only one other mile marker left in the ground—this beauty on Ocean Parkway south of Avenue P in Brooklyn. I hope it’s still […]
September 6, 2021 at 12:21 am |
[…] (Or at least it was several years back.) A stub of granite with the number 3 carved into it is on Ocean Parkway and Avenue P. That’s 3 as in three miles to Prospect Park, where Ocean Parkway […]