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Place Name
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Brooklyn
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Place Status (Type)
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borough
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Population
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2,300,664 (1990)
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Location
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New York, United States, North America
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Latitude
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40°38'N
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Longitude
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73°57'W
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Brooklyn
, borough of N.Y. city (
71 sq mi/184 sq km; 1990 pop.
2,300,664), coextensive with Kings co., SE N.Y., at the W extremity of
L.I.; became a borough of N.Y. city in 1898; 40°38'N 73°57'W.
Residential and industrial region, with the largest pop. of the city's
5 boroughs; among its mfg. are machinery, apparel, paper prods., and
chemicals. Center of important foreign and domestic commerce; has
extensive waterfront facilities. The Brooklyn, Manhattan, and
Williamsburg bridges span the East R., linking the borough to
Manhattan; beneath the river are the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (for
vehicular traffic) and subway tunnels. The Verrazano-Narrows
Bridge connects the borough with Staten Isl. The Dutch and English
settled the area in 1636 and 1637; about 9 years later Du. farmers
established the hamlet of Brueckelen, near the present Borough Hall. By
1664, 6 towns had been established: Breuckelen (the name was later
anglicized to Brooklyn), Bushwick, Flatbush, Gravesend, and New
Utrecht. Kings co. was est. 1683; Brooklyn was inc. 1816 as a village
(Brooklyn Ferry) and was chartered as a city in 1834. In the 1830s
Brooklyn Heights became one of the 1st suburbs accessible to N.Y. city
by ferry. Brooklyn absorbed many settlements and villages, such as
Flatbush, New Utrecht, and Gravesend (all in the 17th cent.). After
annexing Williamsburg and Bushwick in 1855, Brooklyn became the
3d-largest city in the U.S. and continued to absorb other local
villages until it became coextensive with Kings co. in 1896. In 1898,
when it became a borough of N.Y. city, its pop. was 830,000.
Immigration doubled its pop. over the next 20 years. Brooklyn remains a
borough of many well-defined neighborhoods, from the gentrified
brownstone communities of Park Slope and Cobble Hill to
Bedford-Stuyvesant, the largest Afr.-Amer. neighborhood in the city
(and one the largest in the U.S.). Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach
have a large community of Rus. Jews, and there are also neighborhoods
of Hispanics, Italians, Poles, Hasidic Jews, Russians, Chinese, W.
Indians, and other ethnic groups. Among the numerous educational
institutions in the borough are Brooklyn Col. of the City Univ. of
N.Y., Polytechnic Inst. of N.Y., Pratt Inst., St. Joseph's Col., L.I.
Univ., and Brooklyn Law School. The N.Y. Naval Shipyard (popularly
known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard) was located on the East R. from 1801
until its closing in the late 1960s. It has been converted to an
industrial and commercial park. Its closing coincided with the decline
of Brooklyn as a port. Fort Hamilton (built 1831 as a harbor defense)
overlooks the Narrows of N.Y. Bay. Near beautiful Prospect Park, the
scene of fierce fighting in the Amer. Revolution, is the main bldg. of
the Brooklyn Public Lib. Also in that area are the Brooklyn Mus., the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the innovative Brooklyn Acad. of Music.
The Brooklyn Children's Mus. is in Crown Heights. Ebbets Field in the
borough was home to the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team until 1958, when
the team moved to Los Angeles. Among the many structures that give the
borough its appellation “City of Churches” are the Plymouth Church
of the Pilgrims, where Henry Ward Beecher preached. Other points of
interest in the borough include Coney Isl., with its beach and
amusement park; the Brooklyn Historical Society; the N.Y. Aquarium (at
Coney Isl.); and the Lefferts Homestead (1777). Marine Park
and parts of Jamaica Bay are included in Gateway Natl. Recreation Area.
Walt Whitman worked as an editor for the Daily Eagle, a noted
newspaper published in Brooklyn from 1841 until 1955.
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