Recently, Julie asked me about Brooklyn. Its history, its people – and how it became a borough. I told her that if Brooklyn was a City rather than a borough – it would be the fourth largest City in the United States in both population and overall size…

…guess what else I told her:

Canarsee Indians (hence the name Canarsie) occupied the land once described as, “Full of great tall oaks and the lands were pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees... and very sweet smells came from them.” For generations before Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor aboard The Half Moon, in 1609, the land belonged to them. One of Hudson’s men wrote the above quote, upon the arrival of their ship, which was under contract to the Dutch East India Company. His words present quite a different Brooklyn than the one that greets visitors today.

The Gowanus Creek was nestled in among tiny farming villages by 1621. The majority of the early settlers of Brooklyn were Walloons, who fled first from Belgium to Holland during the Inquisition, and then to the new world for greater freedom. These colonists named their new home “Breukelen,” which is Dutch for “broken valley.” Linguistic shifts and gradual pronunciation breakdown led to the name as it is currently spoken: Brooklyn.

Mapmakers of the earliest recorded times designated marshy lands “the flats.” Peter Stuyvesant claimed much of the land called Niew Amersfoort, in Jamaica Bay. This area is known today as Flatlands.

Five distinctive towns were developed by Dutch settlers by the year 1660. They were Niew Utrecht and Breukelen, named for two Holland towns; Flatlands; Berwick (Bushwick, the town of woods); and t’Vlache Bos (Flatbush, the wooded plain). Over two hundred years passed before these five towns would cohere and become what is now Brooklyn.

In addition to building towns, the Dutch also began to form roads, paving over all of the old Indian trails. Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway are two such “paved-over trails.” Roads once walked by slippered feet, where there were many miles between homes and trading posts are still traveled today, by those who currently inhabit the largest borough in New York City.

These five Dutch towns became known as Kings County, for the King of Holland. By 1776, the total population of Kings County reached 3,700, incorporating people from countries all over the globe. In August of that same year, Kings County underwent the biggest population boom in its’ history to that point; in less than one week, thirty thousand British and American soldiers came to Kings County.

The British troops, under General William Howe, were stationed to put down a colonial uprising. Their fleet anchored off the shores of Coney Island and Gravesend, and on August 25, 1776 the British soldiers began to come on shore.

The Battle of Brooklyn began on August 27, 1776. The troops moved north toward the East River. One eyewitness left his thoughts for history, and remembered that day, stating, “Before noon, the Red Coats were so thick in Flatlands you could walk on their heads.”

The British Troops marched in three groups: 5,000 troops marched along Shore Road, 14,000 came down what’s now Atlantic Avenue and “rolled up” on the American Troops from behind, and another 5,000 marched through what is now Prospect Park, the site where The Battle of Brooklyn took place. British soldiers, led by Israel Putnam, battled American troops, who were under the direction and guidance of George Washington. This battle is one of the most famous in America’s war for Independence.

Brooklyn’s own independence has never been as clearly defined. The draw to other boroughs, and the outerlying regions of Long Island have always been an attraction for settlers, both past and present day. Inexpensive housing and accessibility to Manhattan Island drew people to Brooklyn during the early 1800’s. In addition, its 100 mile waterfront called to newly arrived immigrants, whether for recreation or for commerce, and was something that became very popular with tourists throughout the nineteenth century.

In the beginning of the 19th Century, trading between Europe, Asia and the Caribbean Islands exploded. As a result, many ships used Brooklyn’s harbors as ports-of-call.

Brooklyn’s five towns became an incorporated village on April 12, 1816, and a city on July 8, 1834. It was on January 1, 1898 that Brooklyn became one of the five boroughs of Greater New York. Many people of the time called this move, “The Great Mistake” – thinking Brooklyn would lose its character.

Still, by the turn of the century, Brooklyn remained mostly farmland, identifying itself as still independent from the other boroughs. The farmers, seeing the decline in farming, thought it more economical to sell their land than continue farming it, and so sold their land to developers. Housing was built over most of the old farmlands.

Much of Brooklyn had railroad tracks in place, which were used by steam engine locomotives and trolleys, so houses and neighborhoods were formed around these tracks due to the easy access to Manhattan. Many communities developed along train routes, joining people as transportation and accessibility has always done.

By the early 1900’s, Brooklyn had become extremely commercial so it would have a better chance of competing with Manhattan. Essential products and services were manufactured in Brooklyn during the early 1900’s. Squibb Pharmaceutical, Domino Sugar, Wonder Bread and Topps Chewing Gum were just a few of the companies that built factories along Brooklyn’s waterfront.

Brewing beer became very popular in Brooklyn because many people thought that Brooklyn had the best water. Many companies, including Schaefer and Piels, opened breweries along the East River.

After World War I, the Government passed new tax laws that diminished most of the wealth amassed by business owners during the turn of the century. Thus new businesses were no longer developed, and Brooklyn became more “residential.”

Due to the sharp increase in population, the first of the Brooklyn Public Libraries opened for business in 1918. Today, there is one in almost every neighborhood.

Many of the ground level railroad tracks that were in place by 1907 began to be raised above the ground, giving Brooklyn its famous elevated train. This was done both to increase safety and to allow plans to begin for the construction of a subway system throughout Brooklyn and the outer boroughs.

Construction began in 1907 and was completed by 1937, yielding most of the system now in place and still in use. (Of the 469 subway stations currently in operation by the New York City Transit Authority, Brooklyn has 170, the largest amount of any borough – 24 more than Manhattan, and more than Queens and the Bronx combined).

Between World War I and World War II, the rest of the remaining farmland was sold to developers, and housing was built almost everywhere, to accommodate the ever-expanding population. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Brooklyn was dealt a giant blow to its economy when the garment district moved to the south, and the boats that brought trade from overseas into New York ports received tax incentives to move to New Jersey. It was at this point that Brooklyn began to shift even further away from an “industry based borough” toward a “service based borough.” Health care and health services grew in size during the late 1960’s, replacing the industry Brooklyn had lost to other states.

Between 1960 and 1980, Brooklyn received a large immigrant population, which created an employment stalemate; many of the jobs available in Brooklyn during this time required English-speaking workers. Many of the new immigrants did not speak English. This disqualified them from participating in the job market, and so there was a high rate of unemployment. Today, Brooklyn still receives large numbers of immigrants, but has since learned to adjust, offering bilingual job agencies and courses in English in most schools. Since the beginning of the 1990’s, new businesses are opening in almost every neighborhood, and Brooklyn’s business districts are continuing to grow.

Many experts believe Brooklyn is experiencing a revitalization with neighborhoods rebuilding from the ground up and a plethora of businesses returning to Brooklyn. MetroTech, Downtown Brooklyn’s one billion dollar office and technology center whose businesses currently employ over ten thousand people still thrives, and Sheepshead Bay, a vital neighborhood to this borough, which, after a long period of neglect, is beginning to convert its empty lots into retail shops and eateries and many, many condominiums. These two neighborhoods are leading the borough’s renaissance.

Experts believe that if the current revitalization continues on its present course, Brooklyn will remain at the top of the list as the most commercially productive of the five boroughs.

Julie has been to Brooklyn many times, but never knew its history – until now.