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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BRI-BUN |
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BROOKLYN , formerly a city of New York
York
Jersey
Brooklyn is connected with Manhattan by three bridges across the East riverthe lowest, known as the Brooklyn, opened in 1883; another, known as the Williamsburg or East River bridge, opened in 1903; and a third, the Manhattan, was opened in 1909. And a tunnel directly across from the south terminus of Manhattan was completed in 1907. Ferries ply at frequent intervals between numerous points on its west water-front and points in Manhattan; there is also ferry connexion with Jersey
Streets and Buildings.The surface of Brooklyn in the west section, from the lower course of the East river to Gravesend Bay, varies in elevation
Hall
Hall
For a considerable portion of its inhabitants Brooklyn is only a place of residence, their business interests being in the borough of Manhattan; hence Brooklyn has been called the " city of homes " and the " dormitory of New York." Residential districts with social lines more or less distinctly drawn
Parks and Cemeteries.One of the most attractive features of Brooklyn is Prospect Park, occupying about 516 acres of high ground in the west central part of, the borough, on a site made memorable by the battle of Long Island. Its large variety of trees and shrubs, including oak, hickory, elm, maple, chestnut, birch, ash, cedar, pine, larch and sumach, its flower gardens, a palm house, ponds, a lake of 61 acres for boating, skating and curling, a parade ground of 40 acres for other athletic sports, a menagerie, and numerous pieces of statuary, are among its objects of interest
Ridge
Ridge
Greene
Greene
Greenwood cemetery, one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the United States, a m. east of Prospect Park, occupies about 478 acres. Among the principal monuments are those erected to Roger Williams, S.F.B. Morse, Elias Howe, De Witt Clinton (colossal bronze statue by Henry Kirke Brown), Henry Ward Beecher, Peter Cooper, Horace Greeley, Henry Bergh, Henry George and James Gordon Bennett. At the main entrance is a beautiful gateway (of elaborately wrought brown stone), 142 ft. wide and having a central tower roo ft. in height. Along the north-east border of the borough are Cypress Hills cemetery (400 acres), adjoining Brooklyn Forest Park, and the cemetery of the Evergreens (about 375 acres), adjoining Highland Park and partly in the borough of Queens. In the plaza at the northern entrance to Prospect Park is a soldiers' and sailors' memorial arch (8o ft. in width and 7 r ft. in height), adorned with high-reliefs of Lincoln and Grant on horseback (by O'Donovan and Eakins) and with three large bronze groups (by Frederick MacMonnies). Immediately within the park there is a statue (also by MacMonnies) of J. S. T. Stranahan (1808-1898), who did more than any other man for the development of Brooklyn's system of parks and boulevards. On the slope of Lookout Hill (185 ft.) within the park is a shaft erected in 1895 to the memory of the Maryland soldiers who valiantly defended the rear of the American army at the battle of Long Island. A bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln overlooks the lake. In Fort Greene Park is a monument to the memory of the soldiers who died in the British prison ships during the War of Independence, many of them having been buried in a vault below. Facing the borough hall is a statue in bronze (by J. Q. A. Ward) of Henry Ward Beecher, mounted on a granite pedestal with a figure at one side to commemorate Beecher's sympathy for the slave. A fine bronze statue of Alexander Hamilton (by W. O. Partridge, b. 1861) stands at the entrance of the Hamilton Club in Clinton Street and one of U. S. Grant (also by Partridge) stands at the entrance of the Union League Club in Bedford Avenue. Education.The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences embraces twenty-six departments, of which those of music, philology and the fine arts have each more than loco members; the total membership of all departments in 1906 was 5894. The museum building of this institution is in Institute Park, which is separated from Prospect Park on the north-east by Flatbush Avenue. It contains, besides paintings and statuary, special collections for service in nearly all of the departments; among its purely art collections the most notable is that of J. J. J. Tissot's water-colour drawings, to illustrate the life of Christ. Since 1890 the Institute has received appropriations from the city, but it is maintained chiefly by private contributions. It is the outgrowth of the Apprentices' Library Association, founded in 1824, of which General Lafayette laid the corner-stone on the 4th of July of that year. In 1888 Franklin W. Hooper (b. 1851), who did much to increase the efficiency of the work of the Institute, became director. Pratt Institute, founded in 1887 by Charles Pratt (1830-1891), and the residuary legatee of his wife, who died in 1907, is one of the most successful manual
manual
Brooklyn is well provided with charitable institutions, and has long been known as the " city of churches," probably from the famous clergymen who have lived there. Among 'them were Henry Ward Beecher, pastor of Plymouth church (Congregational) from 1847 to 1887; Lyman Abbott, pastor of the same ,church from 1887 to 1898; Thomas De Witt Talmage, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle (Presbyterian) from 1869 to 1894; Richard Salter Storrs (1821-19oo), pastor of the church of the Pilgrims (Congregational) from 1846 to 1899; and Theodore L. Cuyler (1822-1909), pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian church from 186o to 189o. Manufactures and Commerce.The borough of Brooklyn is one of the most important manufacturing centres in the United States, most of the factories being located along or near the East river north of the Brooklyn bridge. The total value of the manufactured products in 1890 was $270,823,754 and in 1900, $342,127,124, an increase during the decade of 26.3%. In 1905 the total value of the borough's manufactured product (under the factory system) was $373,462,930, or x5% of the total manufactured product of the state of New York. Brooklyn's largest manufacturing industry is the refining of sugar, about one-half of the sugar consumed in the United States being refined here; in 1900 the product of the sugar and molasses refining establishments was valued at $77,942,997. Brooklyn is also an important place for the milling of coffee and spices (the 1905 product was valued at $15,274,092), the building of small boats, and the manufacture of foundry and machine shop products, malt liquors, barrels, shoes, chemicals, paints, cordage, twine, and hosiery and other knitted goods. Of its large commerce, grain is the chief commodity; it is estimated that about four-fifths of that exported from the port of New York is shipped from here, and the borough's grain elevators have an estimated storage capacity of about 20,000,000 bushels. The water-supply system is owned and operated by the borough; the water is derived from streams flowing southward in the sparsely settled area east of the borough, and also from driven wells in the same region; it is pumped by ten engines at Ridgewood to a reservoir having a capacity of about 300,000,000 gallons, while a part of it is re-pumped to a high service reservoir near the north entrance to Prospect Park for the service of the most elevated part of the borough. Besides this system some towns in the south section recently annexed have their own water-supply. History.The first settlement within the present limits of Brooklyn was made in 1636, when some Dutch farmers took up their residence along the shore of Gowanus Bay. About the same time other Dutch farmers founded Flatlands (at first called Amersfoort), on Jamaica Bay, and a few Walloons founded Wallabout, where the navy yard now is. In 1642 a ferry was established across East river from the present foot of Fulton Street, and a settlement grew up here which was known as The Ferry. The next year Lady Deborah Moody with some followers from New England founded Gravesend near the southern extremity of the borough. Finally, in the year 1645, a settlement was established near the site of the present borough hall, and was called Breuckelen (also spelled Breucklyn, Breuckland, Brucklyn, Broucklyn, Brookland and Brookline) until about the close of the 18th century, when its orthography became fixed as Brooklyn. The name, Breuckelen, meaning marsh land, seems to have been suggested by the resemblance of the situation of the settlement to that of Breuckelen, Holland. Of the other towns which were later united to form the borough, New Utrecht was settled about 1650, Flatbush (at first called. Medwoud, Midwout or Midwood) about 1651, Bushwick and Williamsburg in 166o. All of the settlements were for a long time chiefly agricultural communities. Flatbush was for a few years immediately preceding 1675 the largest; but Brooklyn was the first (1646) to have a township organization, and within a few years Wallabout, Gowanus, The Ferry, and Bedforda new settlement to the south-east of Wallabout, established in 1662were included within its jurisdiction. In 1654 the municipal privileges of Brooklyn as well as of two of the other towns were enlarged. but with Dutch rule there was general discontent, and when, in 1664, Colonel Richard Nicolls came to overthrow it and establish English rule these towns offered no resistance. Nicolls erected the region composed of Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester into a county under the name of Yorkshire, and divided it into three ridings, of which Staten Island, the present county of Kings, and the town of Newtown in Queens, formed one. In 1683 the. present county of Kings was organized by the first colonial legislature. During the War of Independence the chief .event was the battle of Long Island, fought on the 27th of August 1776. In 1816, when the population of the town of Brooklyn was about 4500, its most populous section was incorporated as a village; and in 1834, when its population had increased to 23,310, the whole town was incorporated as a city. By 185o its population had increased to 138,882. In 1855 Williamsburg, which had been incorporated as a city in 1851, and the town of Bushwick were annexed. Other annexations followed until the city of Brooklyn was conterminous with Kings county; and finally, on the 1st of January 1898, the city of Brooklyn became a borough of New York City. See S. M. Ostrander, A History of Brooklyn and Kings County (Brooklyn, 1894) ; H. W. B. Howard (ed.), History of the City of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, 1893) ; and H. Putnam, Brooklyn, in L. P. Powell's Historic Towns of the Middle States (New York, 1899). End of Article: BROOKLYN If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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