Scouting NY Covers The French Connection, Brooklyn Heights

Plenty has been written about Moonstruck on Cranberry Street, how Luca Brasi went to sleep with the fishes in the Clark Street Hotel, and how the top floor of 10 Montague Terrace is the gateway to hell. But Brooklyn Heights also made cameo appearances in several other films, including William Friedkin’s The French Connection. Scouting NY, the blog run by location scout Nick Carr, does a comparison of the 1971 locations vs today’s—including shots of Middagh Street, Willow Street, and Pier 5. He also asks a question regarding the below photos—perhaps someone out there can answer?

“… It took forever before I finally realized why I didn’t recognize this location …”

“It doesn’t exist anymore! This is Middagh Street, and at some point, it was cut off to form this garden. Anyone know why? I know Robert Moses bulldozed through part of the street for the BQE, but that was in the 1950s.”

Photos: 20th Century Fox and Scouting NY.

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  • Rick

    The reason that part of the street was cut off was because a tractor-trailer on the BQE below had rammed into the ceiling of the underpass, causing structural damage. Engineers deemed the street unsafe and closed it. The garden was added later, a nice addition to otherwise wasted space.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Not sure but I think Michael Valkenburgh, architect of BBP, landscaped that area. Kudos to him.

  • GHB

    Watched Three Days Of The Condor recently and noticed that Faye Dunaway’s apartment is on the same block of Cranberry as Moonstruck, just a couple of doors west.

  • petercow

    Stanley Tucci’s brownstone in “Margin Call” is on Columbia Heights, between Pierrepont and Clark.

  • Muskrat

    Let’s not forget all the tv shows, from “Patty Duke” to “White Collar”!

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    The BHB got it covered like everything else that happens in the Heights:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWBcVjqIubs