Grand Army Plaza is Brooklyn's ceremonial gateway to Prospect Park, envisioned from the start as a threshold where city noise gives way to green serenity. This intersection of eight converging roadways was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (the architects of Central Park) as an architectural welcome, with the Bailey Fountain at its heart—a 1932 sculptural composition celebrating Wisdom and Joy.

The plaza's dominant feature is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch, completed in 1892 to honour the Union soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. Carved into its stone are depictions of Presidents Lincoln and Grant, Greco-Roman goddesses, and a quadriga of rearing horses—each element a meditation on sacrifice and the transition from war to peace. The arch's ornamental language echoes Rome's triumphal architecture, reimagined as a monument to democracy itself, with the US Constitution balanced against symbols of military might.

VoiceMap's self-guided tours use Grand Army Plaza to trace the vision of Brooklyn's visionaries: James Stranahan, who shepherded the park's creation for two decades, and Olmsted and Vaux, whose design principles shaped a democratic public space where New Yorkers could escape urban striving. The tours reveal how the plaza's ceremonial design makes it something rarer than a mere park entrance—it's a philosophical gateway.