Brooklyn - History and Antique Images

This land on Long Island we call Brooklyn was inhabited by the Lenape people in the early 17th century. The first European settlement in the area was established by Dutch farmers in 1636, followed by other settlements in Flatlands, Wallabout, the Ferry and Gravesend.

Regular ferry service between Brooklyn and New York began in 1642. In 1646, the first Dutch settlement on Long Island was incorporated as Breuckelen, after a town in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. In 1654, Governor Pieter Stuyvesant established three Dutch Reformed churches in the towns of Breukelen, Flatbush and Flatlands, now in Brooklyn.

In the early 19th century, Robert Fulton established the first fast and reliable steam ferry between this Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. In 1834, Brooklyn was officially incorporated as a city. In 1853, the Wall Street Ferry connected Brooklyn Heights, the first commuter suburb in the country. By the Civil War, Brooklyn was already the third largest city in the United States of America.

Construction of Brooklyn Bridge began in 1870 and opened to traffic in 1883. Designed by John Augustus Roebling, it was then considered the world's greatest achievement in bridge construction.

In 1898, Brooklyn merged with New York, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island into the City of New York.