Editing Brooklyn (section)

===Post-independence era===
====Urbanization====
[[File:Francis Guy - Winter Scene in Brooklyn - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|''Winter Scene in Brooklyn'', {{circa|1819–20}}, by [[Francis Guy]] ([[Brooklyn Museum]])]]
The first half of the 19th century saw the beginning of the development of urban areas on the economically strategic East River shore of Kings County, facing the adolescent City of New York confined to Manhattan Island. The [[New York Naval Shipyard|New York Navy Yard]] operated in [[Wallabout Bay]] (border between Fort Greene and Williamsburg) during the 19th century and two-thirds of the 20th century.

The first center of [[urbanization]] sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from [[Lower Manhattan]], which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1816. Reliable steam [[List of ferries across the East River|ferry service]] across the East River to [[Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn|Fulton Landing]] converted [[Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn|Brooklyn Heights]] into a [[commuter town]] for [[Wall Street]]. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became [[Fulton Street (Brooklyn)|Fulton Street]] to [[East New York]]. Town and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834.

In a parallel development, the Town of Bushwick, farther up the river, saw the incorporation of the Village of [[Williamsburg, Brooklyn|Williamsburgh]] in 1827, which separated as the Town of Williamsburgh in 1840 and formed the short-lived City of Williamsburgh in 1851. [[Industrial deconcentration]] in the mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the northern part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems.

However, the East River shore was growing too fast for the three-year-old infant City of Williamsburg; it, along with its Town of [[Bushwick, Brooklyn|Bushwick]] hinterland, was subsumed within a greater City of Brooklyn in 1855, subsequently dropping the 'h' from its name.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 19, 2005 |title=How Williamsburg Got Its Groove |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/nyregion/the-new-brooklynstipping-points-how-williamsburg-got-its-groove.html |work=The New York Times |page=5 (section 14) |access-date=January 9, 2024}}</ref>

By 1841, with the appearance of ''[[Brooklyn Eagle|The Brooklyn Eagle, and Kings County Democrat]]'' published by Alfred G. Stevens, the growing city across the East River from Manhattan was producing its own prominent newspaper.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County Democrat |date=October 26, 1841 |access-date=July 29, 2014 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle/170421897/}}</ref> It later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America.{{cn|date=April 2025}} The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19, 1842,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County Democrat |date=October 26, 1841 |access-date=July 29, 2014 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle/170421932/ }}</ref> and the paper was renamed ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Kings County Democrat'' on June 1, 1846.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County Democrat |date=October 26, 1841 |access-date=July 29, 2014 |website=bklyn.newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle/170421953/ |publisher=Newspapers.com}}</ref> On May 14, 1849, the name was shortened to ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'';<ref>{{cite web |title=The Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County Democrat |date=October 26, 1841 |access-date=July 29, 2014 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle/170421989/}}</ref> on September 5, 1938, it was further shortened to ''Brooklyn Eagle''.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County Democrat |date=October 26, 1841 |access-date=July 29, 2014 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle/170422006/ }}</ref> The establishment of the paper in the 1840s helped develop a separate identity for Brooklynites over the next century. The borough's soon-to-be-famous [[National League (baseball)|National League]] baseball team, the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]], also assisted with this. Both major institutions were lost in the 1950s: the paper closed in 1955 after unsuccessful attempts at a sale following a reporters' strike, and the baseball team decamped for Los Angeles in a realignment of [[Major League Baseball]] in 1957.

Agitation against [[Southern United States|Southern]] [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] was stronger in Brooklyn than in New York,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pursuitoffreedom.org/abolitionist-brooklyn/|title=Abolitionist Brooklyn (1828–1849) {{!}} In Pursuit of Freedom|access-date=February 1, 2019}}</ref> and under Republican leadership, the city was fervent in the Union cause in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. After the war the [[Henry Ward Beecher Monument]] was built downtown to honor a famous local [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]]. A great victory arch was built at what was then the south end of town to celebrate the armed forces; this place is now called [[Grand Army Plaza]].

The number of people living in Brooklyn grew rapidly early in the 19th century. There were 4,402 by 1810, 7,175 in 1820 and 15,396 by 1830.<ref>''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol. III'', (1847), London, Charles Knight, p. 852</ref> The city's population was 25,000 in 1834, but the police department comprised only 12 men on the day shift and another 12 on the night shift. Every time a rash of burglaries broke out, officials blamed burglars from New York City. Finally, in 1855, a modern police force was created, employing 150 men. Voters complained of inadequate protection and excessive costs. In 1857, the state legislature merged the Brooklyn force with that of New York City.<ref>Jacob Judd, "Policing the City of Brooklyn in the {{text|1840s}} and {{text|1850s}}", ''Journal of Long Island History'' (1966) (6)2 pp.&nbsp;13–22.</ref>

====Civil War====
Fervent in the Union cause, the city of Brooklyn played a major role in supplying troops and [[materiel]] for the [[American Civil War]]. The best-known regiment to be sent off to war from the city was the [[14th Brooklyn]] ''"Red Legged Devils"''. They fought from 1861 to 1864, wore red the entire war, and were the only regiment named after a city. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] called them into service, making them part of a handful of three-year enlisted soldiers in April 1861. Unlike other regiments during the American Civil War, the 14th wore a uniform inspired by the French [[Chasseur]]s, a light infantry used for quick assaults.

As a seaport and a manufacturing center, Brooklyn was well prepared to contribute to the Union's strengths in shipping and manufacturing. The two combined in shipbuilding; the ironclad ''[[USS Monitor|Monitor]]'' was built in Brooklyn.

====Twin city====
Brooklyn is referred to as the twin city of New York in the 1883 poem, "[[The New Colossus]]" by [[Emma Lazarus]], which appears on a plaque inside the [[Statue of Liberty]]. The poem calls New York Harbor "the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame". As a twin city to New York, it played a role in national affairs that was later overshadowed by decades of subordination by its old partner and rival.

During this period, the affluent, contiguous districts of [[Fort Greene, Brooklyn|Fort Greene]] and [[Clinton Hill, Brooklyn|Clinton Hill]] (then characterized collectively as The Hill) were home to such notable figures as [[Astral Oil Works]] founder [[Charles Pratt]] and his children, including local civic leader [[Charles Millard Pratt]]; [[Theosophical Society]] co-founder [[William Quan Judge]]; and [[Pfizer]] co-founders [[Charles Pfizer]] and [[Charles F. Erhart]]. Brooklyn Heights remained one of the New York metropolitan area's most august patrician redoubts into the early 20th century under the aegis of such figures as abolitionist clergyman [[Henry Ward Beecher]], [[Congregationalist]] [[theologian]]s [[Lyman Abbott]] and [[Newell Dwight Hillis]] (who followed Beecher as the second and third pastors of [[Plymouth Church (Brooklyn)|Plymouth Church]], respectively), financier [[John Jay Pierrepont]] (a grandson of founding Heights resident [[Hezekiah Pierrepont]]), banker/art collector [[David Leavitt (banker)|David Leavitt]], educator/politician [[Seth Low]], merchant/banker [[Horace Brigham Claflin]], attorney [[William Cary Sanger]] (who served for two years as [[United States Assistant Secretary of War]] under Presidents [[William McKinley]] and [[Theodore Roosevelt]]) and publisher [[Alfred Smith Barnes]]. Contiguous to the Heights, the less exclusive [[South Brooklyn]] was home to longtime civic leader [[James S. T. Stranahan]], who became known (often derisively) as the "[[Georges-Eugène Haussmann|Baron Haussmann]] of Brooklyn" for championing [[Prospect Park (Brooklyn)|Prospect Park]] and other public works.

Economic growth continued, propelled by [[immigration]] and [[industrialization]], and Brooklyn established itself as the third-most populous American city for much of the 19th century. The waterfront from [[Gowanus, Brooklyn|Gowanus]] to [[Greenpoint, Brooklyn|Greenpoint]] was developed with piers and factories. Industrial access to the waterfront was improved by the [[Gowanus Canal]] and the canalized [[Newtown Creek]]. {{USS|Monitor}} was the most famous product of the large and growing [[shipbuilding industry]] of Williamsburg. After the [[US Civil War|Civil War]], trolley lines and other transport brought [[urban sprawl]] beyond Prospect Park (completed by [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] and [[Calvert Vaux]] in 1873 and widely heralded as an improvement upon the earlier [[Central Park]]) into the center of the county, as evinced by gradual settlement in the comparatively rustic villages of [[Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn|Windsor Terrace]] and [[Kensington, Brooklyn|Kensington]] in the Town of Flatbush. By century's end, [[Dean Alvord]]'s [[Prospect Park South]] development (adjacent to the village of Flatbush) would serve as the template for contemporaneous "[[Victorian Flatbush]]" micro-neighborhoods and the post-consolidation emergence of outlying districts, such as [[Midwood, Brooklyn|Midwood]] and [[Marine Park, Brooklyn|Marine Park]]. Along with [[Oak Park, Illinois]], it also presaged the [[History of the automobile|automobile]] and [[commuter rail]]-driven vogue for more remote prewar suburban communities, such as [[Garden City, New York]] and [[Montclair, New Jersey]].

[[File:Currier and Ives Brooklyn Bridge2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|right|[[Brooklyn Bridge]] in 1883, by [[Currier and Ives]]]]

The rapidly growing population needed more water, so the City built centralized waterworks, including the [[Ridgewood Reservoir]]. The municipal Police Department, however, was abolished in 1854 in favor of a Metropolitan force covering also New York and Westchester Counties. In 1865 the [[Brooklyn Fire Department]] (BFD) also gave way to the new Metropolitan Fire District.

Throughout this period the peripheral towns of Kings County, far from Manhattan and even from urban Brooklyn, maintained their rustic independence. The only municipal change seen was the secession of the eastern section of the Town of Flatbush as the Town of New Lots in 1852. The building of [[History of the New York City Subway|rail links]] such as the [[BMT Brighton Line|Brighton Beach Line]] in 1878 heralded the end of this isolation.

[[Sports in Brooklyn]] became a business. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms played professional baseball at Washington Park in the convenient suburb of [[Park Slope, Brooklyn|Park Slope]] and elsewhere. Early in the next century, under their new name of Brooklyn Dodgers, they brought baseball to [[Ebbets Field]], beyond Prospect Park. Racetracks, [[amusement park]]s, and [[beach resort]]s opened in [[Brighton Beach]], [[Coney Island]], and elsewhere in the southern part of the county.

[[File:Currier & Ives Brooklyn2.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|[[Currier and Ives]] print of Brooklyn, 1886]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the City of Brooklyn experienced its final, explosive growth spurt. Park Slope was rapidly urbanized, with its eastern summit soon emerging as the city's third "Gold Coast" district alongside Brooklyn Heights and The Hill; notable residents of the era included [[American Chicle Company]] co-founder Thomas Adams Jr. and [[New York Central Railroad]] executive Clinton L. Rossiter. East of The Hill, [[Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn|Bedford-Stuyvesant]] coalesced as an upper middle class enclave for lawyers, shopkeepers, and merchants of German and Irish descent (notably exemplified by John C. Kelley, a water meter magnate and close friend of President [[Grover Cleveland]]), with nearby [[Crown Heights, Brooklyn|Crown Heights]] gradually fulfilling an analogous role for the city's Jewish population as development continued through the early 20th century. Northeast of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick (by now a working class, predominantly German district) established a considerable [[brewery]] industry; the so-called "Brewer's Row" encompassed 14 breweries operating in a 14-block area in 1890. On the southwestern waterfront of Kings County, railroads and industrialization spread to [[Sunset Park, Brooklyn|Sunset Park]] (then coterminous with the city's sprawling, sparsely populated Eighth Ward) and adjacent [[Bay Ridge, Brooklyn|Bay Ridge]] (hitherto a resort-like subsection of the Town of [[New Utrecht]]). Within a decade, the city had annexed the Town of [[New Lots, Brooklyn|New Lots]] in 1886; the Towns of [[Flatbush, Brooklyn|Flatbush]], [[Gravesend, Brooklyn|Gravesend]] and New Utrecht in 1894; and the Town of [[Flatlands, Brooklyn|Flatlands]] in 1896. Brooklyn had reached its natural municipal boundaries at the ends of Kings County.

=====Seth Low as mayor=====
Low's time in office from 1882 to 1885 was marked by a number of reforms:<ref name="Kurland">Gerald Kurland, ''Seth Low: the Reformer in an Urban and Industrial Age'' (Twayne, 1971) pp 25–49.. [https://archive.org/details/sethlowreformeri00gera online]</ref>

* Secured a degree of "home rule" of the city. Previously, the State Government dictated city policies, hiring, salaries, and other affairs. Low managed to secure an unofficial veto over all Brooklyn bills in the State Assembly.
* Instituted a number of educational reforms. He was the first to integrate Brooklyn schools. He introduced free textbooks for all students, not just those who had taken a pauper's oath. He instituted a competitive examination for hiring teachers, instead of giving teaching jobs to pay political debts. He set aside $430,000 ({{Inflation|index=US|value=430000|start_year=1882|fmt=eq}}) for the construction of new schools to accommodate 10,000 new students.
* Introduced Civil Service Code to all city employees, eliminating patronage jobs.
* [[German Americans]] wanted to enjoy their local beer gardens on the Sabbath, in violation of state "dry" laws and the demands of local puritanical clergy. Low's compromise solution was that saloons could stay open as long as they were orderly. At the first sign of rowdiness, they would be closed.
* Served as a member of the board of the New York Bridge Company, the company that built the [[Brooklyn Bridge]], and led an unsuccessful effort to remove [[Washington Roebling]] as the chief engineer on that project.<ref name="GreatBridge">{{Cite book |last=McCullough |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/greatbridge0000mccu |title=The Great Bridge |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=1972 |isbn=0-671-21213-3 |author-link=David McCullough |url-access=registration}}</ref>
* Raised the tax rate from 2.33% of $100 assessed valuation in 1881 to 2.59% in 1883.<ref name=Kurland /> He also went after property owners who had not paid back taxes. This increase in city revenue enabled him to reduce the city's debt and increase services. However, raising taxes proved extremely unpopular.

=====Mayors of the City of Brooklyn=====
{{See also|List of mayors of New York City|Borough President#Brooklyn Borough Presidents|l2=Brooklyn borough presidents}}
Brooklyn elected a mayor from 1834 until 1898, after which it was consolidated into the [[City of Greater New York]], whose own second mayor (1902–1903), Seth Low, had been Mayor of Brooklyn from 1882 to 1885. Since 1898, Brooklyn has, in place of a separate mayor, elected a [[Borough President]].
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Mayors of the City of Brooklyn<ref>'' The Encyclopedia of New York City''; (p. 149, 3rd Column.)</ref>
!Mayor
! class=unsortable|&nbsp;
! style="border-left-style:hidden;padding:0.1em 0em"|Party
!Start year
!End year
|-
|[[George Hall (Brooklyn)|George Hall]]
| bgcolor={{party color|Democratic-Republican Party}}|
| [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]]
|1834
|1834
|-
|[[Jonathan Trotter]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
| Democratic
|1835
|1836
|-
|[[Jeremiah Johnson (mayor)|Jeremiah Johnson]]
| bgcolor={{party color|Whig Party (United States)}}|
| [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]]
|1837
|1838
|-
|[[Cyrus P. Smith]]
| bgcolor={{party color|Whig Party (United States)}}|
| Whig
|1839
|1841
|-
|[[Henry C. Murphy]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1842
|1842
|-
|[[Joseph Sprague]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1843
|1844
|-
|[[Thomas G. Talmage]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
| Democratic
|1845
|1845
|-
|[[Francis B. Stryker]]
| bgcolor={{party color|Whig Party (United States)}}|
|Whig
|1846
|1848
|-
|[[Edward Copland]]
| bgcolor={{party color|Whig Party (United States)}}|
|Whig
|1849
|1849
|-
|[[Samuel Smith (mayor of Brooklyn)|Samuel Smith]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
| Democratic
|1850
|1850
|-
|[[Conklin Brush]]
| bgcolor={{party color|Whig Party (United States)}}|
|Whig
|1851
|1852
|-
|[[Edward A. Lambert]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1853
|1854
|-
|[[George Hall (Brooklyn)|George Hall]]
| bgcolor={{party color|Know Nothing}}|
|[[Know Nothing Party|Know Nothing]]
|1855
|1856
|-
|[[Samuel S. Powell]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1857
|1860
|-
|[[Martin Kalbfleisch]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1861
|1863
|-
|[[Alfred M. Wood]]
| bgcolor=#E81B23|
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|1864
|1865
|-
|[[Samuel Booth (politician)|Samuel Booth]]
| bgcolor=#E81B23|
| Republican
|1866
|1867
|-
|[[Martin Kalbfleisch]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
| Democratic
|1868
|1871
|-
|[[Samuel S. Powell]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
| Democratic
|1872
|1873
|-
|[[John W. Hunter]]
| bgcolor=(#3333FF|
| Democratic
|1874
|1875
|-
|[[Frederick A. Schroeder]]
| bgcolor=#E81B23|
|Republican
|1876
|1877
|-
|[[James Howell (Brooklyn Politician)|James Howell]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1878
|1881
|-
|[[Seth Low]]
| bgcolor=#E81B23|
|Republican
|1882
|1885
|-
|[[Daniel D. Whitney]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1886
|1887
|-
|[[Alfred C. Chapin]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1888
|1891
|-
|[[David A. Boody]]
| bgcolor=#3333FF|
|Democratic
|1892
|1893
|-
|[[Charles A. Schieren]]
| bgcolor=#E81B23|
|Republican
|1894
|1895
|-
|[[Frederick W. Wurster]]
| bgcolor=#E81B23|
|Republican
|1896
|1897
|}