The Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch at Grand Army Plaza is Brooklyn's answer to the Arc de Triomphe, and it has the dimensions to back up the comparison. Built in 1892 and dedicated to the Union soldiers of the Civil War, the triumphal arch marks the ceremonial entrance to Prospect Park at the convergence of eight roads, which gives it an outsized presence in the streetscape even by New York standards.

Look closely as you pass beneath it. On one side, Abraham Lincoln sits on horseback, the president who raised the army these men served in, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and delivered the Gettysburg Address before an assassin cut short whatever came next.

VoiceMap's self-guided tours of New York City use the arch to tell the story of the park's creation, tracing the vision of Olmsted and Vaux from their 1867 designs to the unveiling of this monument a quarter-century later.