Editing Brooklyn (section)

====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>