Cypress Hills National Cemetery

Cypress Hills National Cemetery
United States National Cemetery
The Union Plot of Cypress Hills National Cemetery
For the Americans of all wars
Location40°41′17″N 73°52′55″W / 40.68806°N 73.88194°W / 40.68806; -73.88194
near 
Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York
Total burials>21,000 (through FY 2007)
Statistics source: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/cypresshills.asp

Cypress Hills National Cemetery is a 18.2-acre (7.4 ha) cemetery located in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is the only United States National Cemetery in New York City and has more than 21,100 interments of veterans and civilians.

There are 24 Medal of Honor recipients buried in the cemetery, including three men who received the award twice. Although Cypress Hills was established to honor Civil War veterans, its grounds include the graves of soldiers who fought in the American Revolutionary War, Spanish–American War, Korean War and Vietnam War.[1]

Cypress Hills National Cemetery opened in 1862 and gravesites were exhausted in 1954. However, burials of veteran's spouses continues at the rate of approximately ten per year. The two sections of this national cemetery are located approximately one half-mile apart.

  1. ^ US Dept of Veterans Affairs. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Cemetery is closed to new interments. The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing gravesite. Periodically however, burial space may become available due to a canceled reservation or when a disinterment has been completed. When either of these two scenarios occurs, the gravesite is made available to another eligible veteran on a first-come, first-served basis.