Bath Beach is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City, United States. It is located at the southwestern edge of the borough on Gravesend Bay. The neighborhood borders Bensonhurst and New Utrecht to the northeast across 86th Street; Dyker Beach Park and Golf Course to the northwest across 14th Avenue; and Gravesend to the east across Stillwell Avenue. History Bath Beach held one of Brooklyn's earliest African-American settlements. Freed slaves were given a parcel of land to settle in the mid-nineteenth century. The church that was once located in the heart of that community, Mount Zion Baptist, has moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant. The term "Bath Beach" once described the beach resort specifically as part of the community of Bath, New York. Bath and Bath Beach are now more or less synonymous. The population of Bath Beach received a boost at the end of 1863 when steam dummy railroad service connected the community to the City of Brooklyn horsecar system terminal at 25th Street and 5th Avenue in Sunset Park. Bath Beach, named for the English spa, Bath, Somerset, was developed as a recreational seaside retreat for affluent families. It was part of the original Brooklyn town of New Utrecht. Although Coney Island was nearby, Bath Beach also had its own amusement park. Despite its name, the neighborhood no longer has an actual beach. The beach was paved over during the mid-twentieth century to create the Shore Parkway. On the northwestern half, a promenade was constructed to allow residents access to a sea wall. The southwestern half, filled in with land excavated from the construction of the Shore (Belt) Parkway in the early 1940s, extended Bensonhust Park, from Cropsey Avenue with ballfields and, later, the Ceasar's Bay shopping center. Demographics Bath Beach is primarily a working-class community of semi-attached houses and small apartment houses. Bath Beach is becoming a mixed ethnic community as more recent Chinese, Middle Eastern, and former Soviet immigrants mix with the more established Italian-American population. The neighborhood contains a variety of small mom-and-pop businesses intermixed with chain stores, most of which are located at the Bay Shopping Center at the terminus of Bay Parkway, as well as on 86th Street. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Bath Beach was 29,931, an increase of 1,359 (4.8%) from the 28,572 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density