Mile 8: Where the Nets Now Roam Once athletes cross the Mile 7 mark, there's less than a mile to go on Fourth Avenue before the complexion of the course changes dramatically. Brooklyn's most famous architectural gem, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, looms ahead and serves as a finish line of sorts for Fourth Avenue. Now a condo conversion named for its address, One Hanson Place, the Williamsburgh (yes, with an H, unlike the neighborhood) was Brooklyn's tallest building from 1929 until 2010, when a rental tower called the Brooklyner inched past it. As the tower approaches, details like the four-sided clock below the dome come into sharper relief. The numbered streets crossing Fourth Avenue, which helped marathoners track their progress all the way from the 90s in Bay Ridge, are gone. Now it's streets like Garfield, Carroll and President. On the right is the Brooklyn Lyceum, once Public Bath No. 7, with separate elevated entrances for women and men still etched on the structure. These days it is a multi-use space for things like Zumba class, indie films and a Halloween "Warehouse of Horrors: Gowanus '73," in which visitors get an interactive taste of Brooklyn's bad old days. Union, Sackett, Degraw and Douglass fly by. Butler, Baltic, Warren, St. Mark's. Some cool bars line the left side here, like Pacific Standard and 4th Avenue Pub. After Bergen and Dean Streets, runners on the right side of the median begin to merge left in preparation for a mass slant to the left at Flatbush Avenue. During this transition off Fourth Avenue, the just-opened Barclays Center is visible to the right. This is the new home for Jay-Z, Barbra Streisand and the Nets, Brooklyn first's major sports team since the Dodgers fled west in 1957. The Nets play at home the day before and the day after the marathon. Brooklyn, its own city before 1898, sure is feeling like one right now. Flatbush Avenue runs the entire length of Brooklyn, but marathoners will be enjoy it for about 225 yards before hanging a sharp left onto Lafayette Avenue. Next it's on to the ninth mile, through one of New York City's most vibrant neighborhoods.