![]() The city of Brooklyn expanded and would eventually encompass all of Kings County, and itself being annexed by New York City in 1898.ĭuring the early part of the 20th century, Brooklyn realized a population explosion. With a new bridge in place, many more people came into Brooklyn including: immigrants seeking refuge from the high rents and small apartments in Manhattan. In 1865 The New York Bridge Company was founded to construct the Brooklyn Bridge. To alleviate the pressure, plans to build a bridge were proposed. Eventually the demands for transportation could not be sustained. Ferries transported more than 32 million passengers per year from Brooklyn Heights to lower Manhattan. In 1860 40% of Brooklyn’s wage earners worked in New York City. By the end of the 19th century, more than one million people lived in Brooklyn and more than 30% were foreign-born. The borough’s newest residents hailed from Eastern Europe and included Russian Jews, Italians, Poles, a mixture of Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Finns. A second wave of immigrants arrived in the late 1880s. By 1860, Brooklyn had become the third largest city in the United States. In 1855, nearly half of Brooklyn’s 205,000 residents were foreign-born half were Irish and the rest were divided evenly between families from Britain and Germany. This increase was brought about by the first major wave of European immigrants. Some additional notable firsts included a public school system and an impressive city hall.īetween 18, Brooklyn’s population doubled to nearly 80,000. Over the next 25 years the small town emerged into a city with smoking factories along the river and gas lights along public streets. Many residents of New England moved to Brooklyn. In 1825 the Erie Canal was completed and with it came another surge of industrial and economic expansion. Many of the borough’s newest immigrants found work in the factories that opened along the waterfront and in the new Navy Yard. The turn of the century, also brought with it an influx of Irish immigrants who would call Fort Greene their home. Four years later, in 1814, Robert Fulton began a steam-ferry service across the East River allowing wealthy businessmen to live in Brooklyn Heights and commute to work. In 1801, the United States Navy opened a shipyard on Wallabout Bay.
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