NEW YORK (AP) – A Brooklyn neighborhood is welcoming a hard-edged, 400 million-year-old visitor. A 7-foot high boulder appeared on a street in Fort Greene on Tuesday, pulled from the ground by a contractor digging a new sewer line. Residents of Vanderbilt Avenue are stopping by to visit the rock, which will eventually find a new home at a Queens park. “Maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal if I lived in Colorado and there were mountains,” said Susan Raskin, who can see the rock from her front door. “But I live here. This is a big thing.”

The jagged boulder weighs about 10 tons. Geologist Eric Jordan examined it and said it was more than 400 million years old.

City officials were so impressed by the rock that they decided to save it. The Parks Department will relocate the boulder to a new park in the Elmhurst section of Queens.

“A rock of this size and scale is just perfect for what we’re trying to do,” said Queens park commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski. “We’re very excited about this rock.”

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AP-ES-10-28-06 1332EDT