[15][16] After Prospect Expressway ends at Church Avenue, Ocean Parkway passes through the neighborhoods of Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Midwood, Homecrest, and Sheepshead Bay.

[24] It includes a 70-foot-wide (21 m) central roadway, two 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) grassy medians on each side with bike and pedestrian paths, two 25-foot-wide (7.6 m) service roads on the periphery, and two 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) exterior sidewalks, for a total width of 210 feet (64 m).

[55][56] At the southern end, facing the Atlantic Ocean, there was originally a concourse,[27][57] which traveled around 0.5 miles (0.80 km) along Coney Island Beach.

[91] Vaux and Olmsted wrote in 1866 that they wanted the parkway to be "of a picturesque character [...] neither very straight nor very level, and should be bordered by a small belt of trees and shrubbery".

[93] On May 11, 1869, the New York State Legislature authorized the then-independent city of Brooklyn[a] to develop a highway or avenue from Prospect Park toward Coney Island.

At the time, the Prospect Park Fair Ground Association (PPFGA) operated a racecourse along the parkway's route,[99] the Gravesend Race Track between Kings Highway and Avenue U.

[105] In April 1873, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution directing the Kings County treasurer to issue up to $300,000 in bonds for the construction of Ocean Parkway.

[107] Work on the gravel roadbed south of Church Avenue began in June,[108] and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that August that the parkway was already well-used.

[111] Prospect Park's chief engineer, John Y. Culyer, finished surveying the route of the parkway's southern extension in early 1874.

[162] Following negotiations with the Good Roads Association,[163] the Brooklyn park commissioners agreed to build a bike path within the western median of Ocean Parkway in April 1893,[42][164] and work began that May.

[41][166] After a local cyclists' organization inspected the five test sections in late 1894, the city of Brooklyn decided to construct the rest of the pathway out of crushed gravel.

[171] Owing to the bike path's popularity, Brooklyn mayor Frederick W. Wurster approved plans for a second bikeway on Ocean Parkway's eastern median in April 1896.

[162][44] Drinking fountains and benches were added at regular intervals along the medians, and pedestrian shelters were built at the north and south ends of the parkway.

[20] Ocean Parkway had never been graded properly, which resulted in large accumulations of rainwater; the drainage problems were exacerbated by the completion of the bike paths.

[77] Even in the mid-20th century, the Kings Courier wrote that "many still maintain that the magnificent street, with its lovely trees, walks and benches, still holds first place for beauty".

[183] In 1900, Brooklyn borough officials agreed to spend $3,000 to convert the main roadway between 22nd Avenue and Kings Highway into an automobile speedway.

[194] After the Long Island Automobile Club sued to overturn the ban, the New York Court of Appeals revoked the equestrians' right to the exclusive use of the speedway in June 1912.

[195] City officials also regraded Ocean Parkway between Neptune and Coney Island avenues, which frequently flooded during high tides, during the early 1910s.

[200] NYC Parks announced plans to repave the entirety of the main and western service roads in asphalt, add new trees, replace the sidewalk, and raise the bicycle and bridle paths in late 1919.

[214] The next year, NYC Parks announced plans to pave the eastern service road in asphalt,[215] though work was delayed for several months.

[135] As part of a Works Progress Administration project to expand Brooklyn's bike-lane network, workers replaced Ocean Parkway's bike path with a 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) concrete bikeway between Park Circle and Neptune Avenue.

[225] City officials also sought to increase traffic flow by banning vehicles from parking on Ocean Parkway during rush hours.

[240] The next year, the city's transportation administrator requested funds for the repaving of Ocean Parkway from Kings Highway to Church Avenue.

[241] The federal government would only pay for the repaving project if the lanes were widened; this would have entailed removing trees and adding Jersey barriers.

[245] The FHA approved plans for Ocean Parkway's reconstruction in March 1976,[254] and officials announced that August that the state and U.S. governments would pay for the entire project.

[245] The city's Department of Highway planned to add benches, game tables, fences, stone-block pavers around trees, and wheelchair ramps in response to local residents' requests.

[268] Additionally, in 1997, the NYCDOT proposed connecting the bike paths along Ocean and Belt parkways as part of a $200,000 program to create bikeways around the city.

[271] Despite being a major thoroughfare, Ocean Parkway retained its park-like character; one writer for The New York Times wrote that "every layer of the boulevard is a world, separated from the next by trees".

[70][275][276] The New York state government finally agreed to upgrade the Church Avenue intersection the next year,[276] and it also allocated $6 million for safety improvements to Ocean Parkway.

[72][66] In addition, the NYCDOT announced plans in 2018 to rebuild the intersection of Church Avenue and Ocean Parkway, including new pedestrian islands and curb extensions.