It doesn't take a passport to visit Brooklyn, as some Manhattanites might lead you to believe. Still, Brooklyn can feel a world away. And that's precisely what locals love about it. It's independent. Fiercely headstrong about maintaining its individuality. Tolerant of the different, the foreign, the weird. But what outsiders might be surprised to learn is that Brooklyn is less an undifferentiated mass than a collection of neighbourhoods, each with its own distinctive character and history. From Bay Ridge, Bed-Stuy and Bergen Beach to Weeksville, Williamsburg and Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn is a patchwork quilt of communities stitched together with mismatched threads from nearly everywhere in the world. Celebrating its in-your-face diversity, but continually churning those differences into something fresh and unique, Brooklyn embodies a hip and cool version of the American experiment. E pluribus unum - from many comes one. Here are 111 places to start your explorations.

Photographs by: Ed Lefkowicz