You're now on Montague Street, the main street of Brooklyn Heights. Like many streets in Brooklyn, it is lined with the iconic Brownstones that have made this borough so famous. These houses get their distinctive reddish-brown color from the sandstone used to build them, which is known to be very rich in iron. Brownstones began to appear in Brooklyn, as well as in parts of Manhattan, in the early 1800s. You see, it was much cheaper to build houses in stone than in marble or limestone. This busy street, lined with brownstones and shops of all kinds, is a prime example.