African languages were spoken as a
main language
A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...
by 0.5% (12,305) of the population over the age of five. In total, 45.9% (1,051,456) of Brooklyn's population ages 5 and older spoke a
mother language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
other than English.
Culture
![The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/The_Soldiers_and_Sailors_Memorial_Arch_at_Grand_Army_Plaza.jpg)
Brooklyn has played a major role in various aspects of American culture including literature, cinema, and theater. The
Brooklyn accent has often been portrayed as the "typical New York accent" in American media, although this accent and stereotype are supposedly fading out. Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold.
Cultural venues
Brooklyn hosts the world-renowned
Brooklyn Academy of Music
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...
, the
Brooklyn Philharmonic
There have been several organisations referred to as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The most recent one was the now-defunct Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, an American orchestra based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in existence fr ...
, and the second-largest public art collection in the United States, housed in the
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
.
The
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
, opened in 1897, is New York City's second-largest public art museum. It has in its permanent collection more than 1.5 million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art. The
Brooklyn Children's Museum, the world's first museum dedicated to children, opened in December 1899. The only such New York State institution accredited by the
American Alliance of Museums, it is one of the few globally to have a permanent collectionover 30,000 cultural objects and natural history specimens.
The
Brooklyn Academy of Music
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...
(BAM) includes a 2,109-seat opera house, an 874-seat theater, and the art-house BAM Rose Cinemas.
Bargemusic
Bargemusic, formally known as ''Bargemusic, Ltd.'' is a classical music venue and cultural icon in Brooklyn. Founded in 1977, it is housed on a converted coffee barge moored at Fulton Ferry Landing on the East River near the Brooklyn Bridge.
Hi ...
and St. Ann's Warehouse are on the other side of Downtown Brooklyn in the
DUMBO arts district.
Brooklyn Technical High School
Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...
has the second-largest auditorium in New York City (after
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...
), with a
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
of over 3,000.
Media
Local periodicals
Brooklyn has several local newspapers: The ''
Brooklyn Daily Eagle'', ''
Bay Currents
''Bay Currents'', founded by an entrepreneurial journalist in August 2004, is an independent newspaper focusing on oceanfront Brooklyn, New York, United States, including Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island. The newspaper is publish ...
'' (Oceanfront Brooklyn), ''Brooklyn View'', ''
The Brooklyn Paper
''Brooklyn Paper'' is a weekly newspaper that covers news related exclusively to the New York City borough of Brooklyn. ''Brooklyn Paper'' covers news and cultural events throughout the borough, using different mastheads for neighborhoods such as P ...
'', and Courier-Life Publications. Courier-Life Publications, owned by Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation, is Brooklyn's largest chain of newspapers. Brooklyn is also served by the major New York dailies, including ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the ''
New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'', and the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
''.
The borough is home to the arts and politics monthly ''
Brooklyn Rail'', as well as the arts and cultural quarterly ''
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
''. ''
Hello Mr.
''Hello Mr.'', stylized as ''hello mr.'', was a semiannual American lifestyle magazine focused on topics of interest to gay men. The magazine described itself as being "about men who date men," though the magazine tackled both queer and queer-adj ...
'' is also published in Brooklyn.
''Brooklyn Magazine'' is one of the few glossy magazines about Brooklyn. Several others are now defunct, including ''BKLYN Magazine'' (a bimonthly lifestyle book owned by Joseph McCarthy, that saw itself as a vehicle for high-end advertisers in Manhattan and was mailed to 80,000 high-income households), ''Brooklyn Bridge Magazine'', ''The Brooklynite'' (a free, glossy quarterly edited by Daniel Treiman), and ''NRG'' (edited by Gail Johnson and originally marketed as a local periodical for Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, but expanded in scope to become the self-proclaimed "Pulse of Brooklyn" and then the "Pulse of New York").
Ethnic press
Brooklyn has a thriving ethnic press. ''
El Diario La Prensa
''El Diario Nueva York'' is the largest and the oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States. Published by ImpreMedia, the paper covers local, national and international news with an emphasis on Latin America, as well as human-in ...
'', the largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States, maintains its corporate headquarters at 1
MetroTech Center
Brooklyn Commons, formerly MetroTech Center, is a business and educational center in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City.
Location
Brooklyn Commons lies between Flatbush Avenue Extension and Jay Street, north of the Fulton Street Mall and south o ...
in
downtown Brooklyn. Major ethnic publications include the Brooklyn-Queens Catholic paper ''
The Tablet'', ''
Hamodia'', an Orthodox Jewish daily and ''
The Jewish Press'', an Orthodox Jewish weekly. Many nationally distributed ethnic newspapers are based in Brooklyn. Over 60 ethnic groups, writing in 42 languages, publish some 300 non-English language magazines and newspapers in New York City. Among them is the quarterly "
L'Idea
''L'Idea'' is a quarterly bilingual magazine in Italian and English, published continuously in Brooklyn, New York since 1974.
History
"Founded as the official magazine of New York's Circolo Culturale di Mola di Bari ... The magazine has conti ...
", a bilingual magazine printed in Italian and English since 1974. In addition, many newspapers published abroad, such as ''
The Daily Gleaner
''The Daily Gleaner'' is a morning daily newspaper serving the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and the upper Saint John River Valley. The paper is published Monday through Saturday and began operating in 1880. In April 2006, the paper switch ...
'' and ''The Star'' of Jamaica, are available in Brooklyn.
Our Time Press
''Our Time Press'' began publishing in February 1996.
''Our Time Press'' was co-founded by David Mark Greaves and Bernice Elizabeth Green and owned by DBG Media, publishers of Our Time Press, Inc. a privately held company. The newspaper has a cir ...
published weekly by DBG Media covers the Village of Brooklyn with a motto of "The Local paper with the Global-View".
Television
The City of New York has an official television station, run by
NYC Media, which features programming based in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Community Access Television
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behin ...
is the borough's
public access channel. Its studios are at the
BRIC Arts Media
BRIC, formerly known as BRIC Arts Media or Brooklyn Information & Culture, is a non-profit arts organization based in Brooklyn, New York founded in 1979 as the "Fund for the Borough of Brooklyn". A presenter of free cultural programming in Brookly ...
venue, called BRIC House, located on
Fulton Street in the
Fort Greene section of the borough.
Events
* The annual
Coney Island Mermaid Parade (mid-to-late June) is a costume-and-float parade.
* Coney Island also hosts the annual
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (July 4).
* The annual
Labor Day Carnival
The West Indian Day Parade Carnival is an annual celebration of West Indian culture, held annually on around the first Monday of September in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. It is organized by the West Indian American Day Carnival Associ ...
(also known as the Labor Day Parade or West Indian Day Parade) takes place along
Eastern Parkway in
Crown Heights.
* The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival runs annually around the second week of June.
Economy
![Brooklyn buildings near East River IMG 3731](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Brooklyn_buildings_near_East_River_IMG_3731.JPG)
Brooklyn's job market is driven by three main factors: the performance of the national and city economy, population flows and the borough's position as a convenient back office for New York's businesses.
Forty-four percent of Brooklyn's employed population, or 410,000 people, work in the borough; more than half of the borough's residents work outside its boundaries. As a result, economic conditions in Manhattan are important to the borough's jobseekers. Strong international immigration to Brooklyn generates jobs in services, retailing and construction.
Since the late 20th century, Brooklyn has benefited from a steady influx of financial
back office operations from Manhattan, the rapid growth of a
high-tech
High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...
and entertainment economy in
DUMBO, and strong growth in support services such as accounting, personal supply agencies, and computer services firms.
Jobs in the borough have traditionally been concentrated in manufacturing, but since 1975, Brooklyn has shifted from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy. In 2004, 215,000 Brooklyn residents worked in the services sector, while 27,500 worked in manufacturing. Although manufacturing has declined, a substantial base has remained in apparel and niche manufacturing concerns such as furniture, fabricated metals, and food products. The pharmaceutical company
Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
was founded in Brooklyn in 1869 and had a manufacturing plant in the borough for many years that employed thousands of workers, but the plant shut down in 2008. However, new light-manufacturing concerns packaging organic and high-end food have sprung up in the old plant.
First established as a
shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...
facility in 1801, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed 70,000 people at its peak during World War II and was then the largest employer in the borough. The ''USS Missouri (BB-63), Missouri'', the ship on which the Japanese formally surrendered, was built there, as was the ''USS Maine (ACR-1), Maine'', whose sinking off Havana led to the start of the Spanish–American War. The iron-sided Civil War vessel the ''
Monitor
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...
'' was built in Greenpoint. From 1968 to 1979 Seatrain Lines, Seatrain Shipbuilding was the major employer. Later tenants include industrial design firms, food processing businesses, artisans, and the film and television production industry. About 230 private-sector firms providing 4,000 jobs are at the Yard.
Construction and services are the fastest growing sectors. Most employers in Brooklyn are small businesses. In 2000, 91% of the approximately 38,704 business establishments in Brooklyn had fewer than 20 employees. , the borough's unemployment rate was 5.9%.
Brooklyn is also home to many banks and credit unions. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, there were 37 banks and 26 credit unions operating in the borough in 2010.
The Zoning in the United States, rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn has generated over US$10 billion of private investment and $300 million in public improvements since 2004. Brooklyn is also attracting numerous high technology start-up company, start-up companies, as Silicon Alley, the metonym for New York City's entrepreneurship ecosystem, has expanded from
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
into Brooklyn.
Parks and other attractions
* Brooklyn Botanic Garden: adjacent to Prospect Park is the botanical garden, which includes a cherry tree esplanade, a one-acre (0.4 ha) rose garden, a Japanese hill, and pond garden, a fragrance garden, a water lily pond esplanade, several conservatories, a rock garden, a native flora garden, a ''bonsai'' tree collection, and children's gardens and discovery exhibits.
*
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
developed as a playground for the rich in the early 1900s, but it grew as one of America's first amusement grounds and attracted crowds from all over New York. The Coney Island Cyclone, Cyclone rollercoaster, built-in 1927, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The 1920 Wonder Wheel and other rides are still operational. Coney Island went into decline in the 1970s but has undergone a renaissance.
* Floyd Bennett Field: the first municipal airport in New York City and long-closed for operations, is now part of the National Park System. Many of the historic hangars and runways are still extant. Nature trails and diverse habitats are found within the park, including salt marsh and a restored area of shortgrass prairie that was once widespread on the Hempstead Plains.
*
Green-Wood Cemetery, founded by the social reformer Henry Evelyn Pierrepont in 1838, is an early Rural cemetery. It is the burial ground of many notable New Yorkers.
* Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge: a unique Federal wildlife refuge straddling the Brooklyn-Queens border, part of Gateway National Recreation Area
* New York Transit Museum displays historical artifacts of Greater New York's subway, commuter rail, and bus systems; it is at Court Street, a former Independent Subway System station in Brooklyn Heights on the IND Fulton Street Line, Fulton Street Line.
*
Prospect Park is a public park in central Brooklyn encompassing .
The park was designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...
and
Calvert Vaux, who created Manhattan's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
. Attractions include the Long Meadow, a meadow, the Picnic House, which houses offices and a hall that can accommodate parties with up to 175 guests; Litchfield Villa, Prospect Park Zoo, the Boathouse on the Lullwater of the Lake in Prospect Park, Boathouse, housing a visitors center and the first urban National Audubon Society, Audubon Center;
Brooklyn's only lake, covering ; the Prospect Park Bandshell that hosts free outdoor concerts in the summertime; and various sports and fitness activities including seven baseball fields. Prospect Park hosts a popular annual Halloween Parade.
* Fort Greene Park is a public park in the
Fort Greene Neighborhood. The park contains the Fort Greene Park#Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, a monument to American prisoners during the revolutionary war.
Sports
![Barclays Center Rain Night](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Barclays_Center_Rain_Night.jpg)
Brooklyn's major professional sports team is the National Basketball Association, NBA's Brooklyn Nets. The Nets moved into the borough in 2012, and play their home games at Barclays Center in Prospect Heights. Previously, the Nets had played in Uniondale, New York and in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. In April 2020, the New York Liberty of the WNBA were sold to the Nets' owners and moved their home venue from Madison Square Garden to the Barclays Center.
Barclays Center was also the home arena for the National Hockey League, NHL's New York Islanders full-time from 2015 to 2018, then part-time from 2018 to 2020 (alternating with Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale). The Islanders had originally played at Nassau Coliseum full-time since their inception until 2015 when their lease at the venue expired and the team moved to Barclays Center. In 2020, the team returned to Nassau Coliseum full-time for one season before moving to the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York in 2021.
Brooklyn also has a storied sports history. It has been home to many famous sports figures such as Joe Paterno, Vince Lombardi, Mike Tyson, Joe Torre, Sandy Koufax, Billy Cunningham and Vitas Gerulaitis. Basketball legend Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn though he grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina.
In the earliest days of organized baseball, Brooklyn teams dominated the new game. The second recorded game of baseball was played near what is today Fort Greene Park on October 24, 1845. Brooklyn's Excelsior of Brooklyn, Excelsiors, Brooklyn Atlantics, Atlantics and Eckford of Brooklyn, Eckfords were the leading teams from the mid-1850s through the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, and there were dozens of local teams with neighborhood league play, such as at Mapleton Park, Brooklyn, NY, Mapleton Oval.
During this "Brooklyn era", baseball evolved into the modern game: the first fastball, first changeup, first batting average (baseball), batting average, first triple play, Jim Creighton, first pro baseball player, first Union Grounds, enclosed ballpark, first Baseball scorekeeping, scorecard, first known African-American team, first black championship game, first road trip, first gambling scandal, and first eight pennant winners were all in or from Brooklyn.
Brooklyn's most famous historical team, the
Brooklyn Dodgers
The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...
, named for "trolley dodgers" played at
Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five p ...
. In 1947 Jackie Robinson was hired by the Dodgers as the first African-American player in Major League Baseball in the modern era. In 1955, the Dodgers, perennial National League pennant winners, won the only World Series for Brooklyn against their rival New York Yankees. The event was marked by mass euphoria and celebrations. Just two years later, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Walter O'Malley, the team's owner at the time, is still vilified, even by Brooklynites too young to remember the Dodgers as Brooklyn's ball club.
After a 43-year hiatus, professional baseball returned to the borough in 2001 with the Brooklyn Cyclones, a minor league baseball, minor league team that plays in MCU Park in
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
. They are an affiliate of the New York Mets. The New York Cosmos (2010), New York Cosmos of the NASL began playing at MCU Park in 2017.
Brooklyn once had a National Football League team named the Brooklyn Lions in 1926, who played at
Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five p ...
.
In Rugby union, Rugby United New York joined Major League Rugby in 2019, and play their home games at MCU Park. In Rugby league, existing USA Rugby League, USARL club Brooklyn Kings (rugby league), Brooklyn Kings joined the professional North American Rugby League competition for its inaugural 2021 season.
Brooklyn has one of the most active recreational fishing fleets in the United States. In addition to a large private fleet along Jamaica Bay, there is a substantial public fleet within Sheepshead Bay. Species caught include Black Fish, Porgy, Striped Bass, Black Sea Bass, Fluke, and Flounder.
Government and politics
![Bk Boro Hall summer dusk jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Bk_Boro_Hall_summer_dusk_jeh.JPG)
Since its consolidation with New York City in 1898, Brooklyn has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a "strong" Mayor–council government, mayor–council system. The centralized government of New York City is responsible for New York City Department of Education, public education, correctional institutions, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services. On the other hand, the Brooklyn Public Library is an independent nonprofit organization partially funded by the government of New York City, but also by the government of New York State, the government of the United States, U.S. federal government, and fundraising, private donors.
The office of
Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with the local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional because Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough; it was a violation of the high court's Reynolds v. Sims, 1964 "one man, one vote" reading of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment.
Since 1990, the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Brooklyn's current Borough President is Antonio Reynoso who replaced Eric Adams (politician), Eric Adams when Adams took office as Mayor of New York City.
Democrats hold most public offices, and the borough leans heavily Democratic. As of November 2017, 89.1% of registered voters in Brooklyn were Democrats. Party platforms center on affordable housing, education and economic development. Pockets of Republican influence exist in Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Midwood.
Each of the city's five counties (coterminous with each borough) has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. The District Attorney of Kings County is Eric Gonzalez (lawyer), Eric Gonzalez, who replaced Democrat Kenneth P. Thompson following his death in October 2016. Brooklyn has 16 City Council members, the largest number of any of the five boroughs. Brooklyn has 18 of the city's 59 community districts, each served by an unpaid Community Board with advisory powers under the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. Each board has a paid district manager who acts as an interlocutor with city agencies.
Federal representation
Education
![St Francis College - Administration Building (48228098122)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/St_Francis_College_-_Administration_Building_%2848228098122%29.jpg)
Education in Brooklyn is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Non-charter public schools in the borough are managed by the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States.
Brooklyn Technical High School
Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...
(commonly called Brooklyn Tech), a New York City public high school, is the largest specialized high school for science, mathematics, and technology in the United States. Brooklyn Tech opened in 1922. Brooklyn Tech is across the street from Fort Greene Park. This high school was built from 1930 to 1933 at a cost of about $6 million and is 12 stories high. It covers about half of a city block. Brooklyn Tech is noted for its famous alumni (including two Nobel Laureates), its academics, and a large number of graduates attending prestigious universities.
Higher education
Public colleges
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, and was the first public coeducational liberal arts college in New York City. The college ranked in the top 10 nationally for the second consecutive year in Princeton Review's 2006 guidebook, ''America's Best Value Colleges''. Many of its students are first and second-generation Americans. Founded in 1970, Medgar Evers College is a senior college of the City University of New York. The college offers programs at the baccalaureate and associate degree levels, as well as adult and continuing education classes for central Brooklyn residents, corporations, government agencies, and community organizations. Medgar Evers College is a few blocks east of
Prospect Park in
Crown Heights.
CUNY's New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York (CUNY) (Downtown Brooklyn/Brooklyn Heights) is the largest public college of technology in New York State and a national model for technological education. Established in 1946, City Tech can trace its roots to 1881 when the Technical Schools of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were renamed the New York Trade School. That institution—which became the Voorhees Technical Institute many decades later—was soon a model for the development of technical and vocational schools worldwide. In 1971, Voorhees was incorporated into City Tech.
SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, founded as the Long Island College Hospital in 1860, is the oldest hospital-based medical school in the United States. The Medical Center comprises the College of Medicine, College of Health Related Professions, College of Nursing, School of Public Health, School of Graduate Studies, and University Hospital of Brooklyn. The Nobel Prize winner Robert F. Furchgott was a member of its faculty. Half of the Medical Center's students are minorities or immigrants. The College of Medicine has the highest percentage of minority students of any medical school in New York State.
Private colleges
Brooklyn Law School was founded in 1901 and is notable for its diverse student body. Women and African Americans were enrolled in 1909. According to the Leiter Report, a compendium of law school rankings published by Brian Leiter, Brooklyn Law School places 31st nationally for the quality of students.
Long Island University is a private university headquartered in Brookville, New York, Brookville on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, with a campus in Downtown Brooklyn with 6,417 undergraduate students. The Brooklyn campus has strong science and medical technology programs, at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Pratt Institute, in
Clinton Hill, is a private college founded in 1887 with programs in engineering, architecture, and the arts. Some buildings in the school's Brooklyn campus are New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, official landmarks. Pratt has over 4700 students, with most at its Brooklyn campus. Graduate programs include a library and information science, architecture, and urban planning. Undergraduate programs include architecture, construction management, writing, critical and visual studies, industrial design and fine arts, totaling over 25 programs in all.
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering, the United States' second oldest private institute of technology, founded in 1854, has its main campus in Downtown's
MetroTech Center
Brooklyn Commons, formerly MetroTech Center, is a business and educational center in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City.
Location
Brooklyn Commons lies between Flatbush Avenue Extension and Jay Street, north of the Fulton Street Mall and south o ...
, a commercial, civic and educational redevelopment project of which it was a key sponsor. NYU-Tandon is one of the 18 schools and colleges that comprise New York University (NYU).
St. Francis College is a Catholic college in Brooklyn Heights founded in 1859 by Franciscan friars. Today, over 2,400 students attend the small liberal arts college. St. Francis is considered by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as one of the more diverse colleges, and was ranked one of the best baccalaureate colleges by ''Forbes'' magazine and ''U.S. News & World Report''.
Brooklyn also has smaller liberal arts institutions, such as St. Joseph's College (New York), Saint Joseph's College in Clinton Hill and Boricua College in
Williamsburg
Williamsburg may refer to:
Places
*Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia
*Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City
*Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California
*Williams ...
.
Community colleges
Kingsborough Community College is a junior college in the City University of New York system in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach.
Brooklyn Public Library
![Brooklyn Public Library by DS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Brooklyn_Public_Library_by_DS.JPG)
As an independent system, separate from the New York and Queens public library systems, the Brooklyn Public Library offers thousands of public programs, millions of books, and use of more than 850 free Internet-accessible computers. It also has books and periodicals in all the major languages spoken in Brooklyn, including English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, and Haitian Creole, as well as French, Yiddish, Hindi, Bengali, Polish, Italian, and Arabic. The Central Library is a landmarked building facing
Grand Army Plaza.
There are 58 library branches, placing one within a half-mile of each Brooklyn resident. In addition to its specialized Business Library in Brooklyn Heights, the Library is preparing to construct its new Visual & Performing Arts Library (VPA) in the BAM Cultural District, which will focus on the link between new and emerging arts and technology and house traditional and digital collections. It will provide access and training to arts applications and technologies not widely available to the public. The collections will include the subjects of art, theater, dance, music, film, photography, and architecture. A special archive will house the records and history of Brooklyn's arts communities.
Transportation
Public transport
About 57 percent of all households in Brooklyn were households without automobiles. The citywide rate is 55 percent in New York City.
![Atlantic Terminal LIRR and Subway entrances](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Atlantic_Terminal_LIRR_and_Subway_entrances.jpg)
Brooklyn features extensive public transport, public transit. Nineteen
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
services, including the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, traverse the borough. Approximately 92.8% of Brooklyn residents traveling to Manhattan use the subway, despite the fact some neighborhoods like
Flatlands and
Marine Park are poorly served by subway service. Major stations, out of the List of New York City Subway stations in Brooklyn, 170 currently in Brooklyn, include:
* Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center
* Broadway Junction (New York City Subway), Broadway Junction
* DeKalb Avenue (BMT Fourth Avenue Line), DeKalb Avenue
* Jay Street – MetroTech
* Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue
Proposed New York City Subway lines never built include a line along Nostrand or Utica Avenues to Marine Park, as well as a subway line to Spring Creek, Brooklyn, Spring Creek.
Brooklyn was once served by list of streetcar lines in Brooklyn, an extensive network of streetcars, but many were replaced by the List of bus routes in Brooklyn, public bus network that covers the entire borough. There is also daily express bus service into Manhattan. New York's famous yellow cabs also provide transportation in Brooklyn, although they are less numerous in the borough. There are three commuter rail stations in Brooklyn: East New York (LIRR station), East New York, Nostrand Avenue (LIRR station), Nostrand Avenue, and Atlantic Terminal, the terminus of the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The terminal is near the Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center subway station, with ten connecting subway services.
In February 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city government would begin a citywide ferry service called NYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to communities in the city that have been traditionally underserved by public transit.
The ferry opened in May 2017,
with the Bay Ridge ferry serving southwestern Brooklyn and the East River Ferry serving northwestern Brooklyn. A third route, the Rockaway ferry, makes one stop in the borough at Brooklyn Army Terminal.
A streetcar line, the Brooklyn–Queens Connector, was proposed by the city in February 2016, with the planned timeline calling for service to begin around 2024.
Roadways
![Williamsburg Bridge from Gowanus Bay jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Williamsburg_Bridge_from_Gowanus_Bay_jeh.jpg)
Most of the limited-access road, limited-access expressways and parkways are in the western and southern sections of Brooklyn, where the borough's two Interstate Highway System, interstate highways are located; Interstate 278, which uses the Gowanus Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, traverses
Sunset Park and Brooklyn Heights, while Interstate 478 is an unsigned route designation for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, which connects to Manhattan. Other prominent roadways are the Prospect Expressway (New York State Route 27), the Belt Parkway, and the Jackie Robinson Parkway (formerly the Interborough Parkway). Planned expressways that were never built include the Bushwick Expressway, an extension of I-78 and the Cross-Brooklyn Expressway, I-878. Major thoroughfares include
Atlantic Avenue Atlantic Avenue may refer to:
Highways
* Atlantic Avenue (Boston) in Massachusetts
* Atlantic Avenue (New York City) in Brooklyn and Queens, New York
* Florida State Road 806 in Palm Beach County, locally known as Atlantic Avenue
* Atlantic Avenue ...
, Fourth Avenue (Brooklyn), Fourth Avenue, 86th Street, Kings Highway (Brooklyn), Kings Highway, Bay Parkway (Brooklyn), Bay Parkway, Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn), Ocean Parkway,
Eastern Parkway, Linden Boulevard, McGuinness Boulevard,
Flatbush Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue (Brooklyn), Pennsylvania Avenue, and Nostrand Avenue.
Much of Brooklyn has only named streets, but Park Slope, Bay Ridge,
Sunset Park,
Bensonhurst, and
Borough Park and the other western sections have List of numbered Brooklyn streets, numbered streets running approximately northwest to southeast, and numbered avenues going approximately northeast to southwest. East of Dahill Road, lettered avenues (like Avenue M) run east and west, and numbered streets have the prefix "East". South of Avenue O, related numbered streets west of Dahill Road use the "West" designation. This set of numbered streets ranges from West 37th Street to East 108 Street, and the avenues range from A–Z with names substituted for some of them in some neighborhoods (notably Albemarle, Beverley, Cortelyou, Dorchester, Ditmas, Foster, Farragut, Glenwood, Quentin). Numbered streets prefixed by "North" and "South" in Williamsburg, and "Bay", "Beach", "Brighton", "Plumb", "Paerdegat" or "Flatlands" along the southern and southwestern waterfront are loosely based on the old grids of the original towns of Kings County that eventually consolidated to form Brooklyn. These names often reflect the bodies of water or beaches around them, such as Plumb Beach or Paerdegat Basin.
Brooklyn is connected to Manhattan by three bridges, the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, Manhattan Bridge, Manhattan, and
Williamsburg Bridges; a vehicular tunnel, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (also known as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel); and several subway tunnels. The
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and th ...
links Brooklyn with the more suburban borough of
Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
. Though much of its border is on land, Brooklyn shares several water crossings with
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, including the Pulaski Bridge, the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, the Kosciuszko Bridge (part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), and the Grand Street Bridge, all of which carry traffic over
Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. Channelization made it one of the most heavily-used bodies of water in the Port of N ...
, and the Marine Parkway Bridge connecting Brooklyn to the Rockaway Peninsula.
Waterways
Brooklyn was long a major shipping port, especially at the Brooklyn Army Terminal and Bush Terminal in
Sunset Park. Most container ship cargo operations have shifted to the New Jersey side of New York Harbor, while the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in
Red Hook is a focal point for New York's growing cruise industry. The ''Queen Mary 2'', one of the List of largest cruise ships, world's largest ocean liners, was designed specifically to fit under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the United States. She makes regular ports of call at the Red Hook terminal on her transatlantic crossings from Southampton, England.
The Brooklyn waterfront formerly employed tens of thousands of borough residents and acted as an incubator for industries across the entire city, and the decline of the port exacerbated Brooklyn's decline in the second half of the 20th century.
In February 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city government would begin NYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to traditionally underserved communities in the city.
The ferry opened in May 2017,
offering commuter services from the western shore of Brooklyn to Manhattan via three routes. The East River Ferry serves points in
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
, Midtown Manhattan, Midtown, Long Island City, and northwestern Brooklyn via its East River route. The South Brooklyn and Rockaway routes serve southwestern Brooklyn before terminating in lower Manhattan. Ferries to Coney Island are also planned.
NY Waterway offers tours and charters. SeaStreak also offers a weekday ferry service between the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the Manhattan ferry slips at Pier 11/Wall Street downtown and East 34th Street Ferry Landing in midtown. A Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel, originally proposed in the 1920s as a core project for the then-new Port Authority of New York is again being studied and discussed as a way to ease freight movements across a large swath of the metropolitan area.
Partnerships with districts of foreign cities
* Anzio, Anzio, Lazio, Italy (since 1990)
* Huế, Vietnam
* Gdynia, Poland (since 1991)
* Beşiktaş, Beşiktaş, Istanbul Province, Turkey (since 2005)
* Leopoldstadt, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria (since 2007)
* London Borough of Lambeth, United Kingdom
* Bnei Brak, Israel
* Konak, İzmir, Turkey (since 2010)
* Chaoyang District, Beijing, China (since 2014)
* Yiwu, China (since 2014)
* Üsküdar, Istanbul, Turkey (since 2015)
Hospitals and healthcare
* Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center
* Kings County Hospital Center
* NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County
* NYU Langone hospital- Brooklyn
* Methodist hospital
* Maimonides Hospital
* Mt. Sinai Brooklyn
* SUNY DOWNSTATE MEDICAL CENTER
See also
General links
* List of people from Brooklyn
* List of tallest buildings in Brooklyn
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Kings County, New York
History of neighborhoods
* Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn#History, Bedford–Stuyvesant
* Bushwick, Brooklyn#History, Bushwick
* Canarsie#History, Canarsie
* Coney Island#History, Coney Island
* Crown Heights, Brooklyn#History, Crown Heights
* East Williamsburg, Brooklyn#History, East Williamsburg
* Flatbush, Brooklyn#History, Flatbush
* Gravesend, Brooklyn#History, Gravesend
* Greenpoint, Brooklyn#History, Greenpoint
* New Utrecht, Brooklyn#History, New Utrecht
* Park Slope#History, Park Slope
* Williamsburg, Brooklyn#History, Williamsburg
General history
* Brooklyn Visual Heritage
* History of New York City
* List of former municipalities in New York City
* Timeline of Brooklyn history
Notes
References
Further reading
Published before 1950
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Published 1950–present
* Carbone, Tommy,
Growing Up Greenpoint – A Kid's Life in 1970s Brooklyn" Burnt Jacket Publishing, 2018.
* Curran, Winifred. "Gentrification and the nature of work: exploring the links in Williamsburg, Brooklyn." ''Environment And Planning A.'' 36 (2004): 1243–1258.
* Curran, Winifred. "'From the Frying Pan to the Oven': Gentrification and the Experience of Industrial Displacement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn." ''Urban Studies'' (2007) 44#8 pp: 1427–1440.
* Golenbock, Peter. ''Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers'' (Courier Corporation, 2010)
* Harris, Lynn
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' May 18, 2008
* Henke, Holger, "The West Indian Americans," Greenwood Press: Westport (CT) 2001.
* Livingston, E. H. ''President Lincoln's Third Largest City: Brooklyn and The Civil War'' (1994)
* McCullough, David W., and Jim Kalett. ''Brooklyn...and How It Got That Way'' (1983); guide to neighborhoods; many photos
* McCullough, David. ''The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge'' (2001)
* Ment, David. ''The shaping of a city: A brief history of Brooklyn'' (1979)
* Trezza, Frank J
"Brooklyn Navy Yard 1966–1986, the Yard was still a Shipyard not an Industrial Park"* Robbins, Michael W., ed. ''Brooklyn: A State of Mind''. Workman Publishing, New York, 2001.
* Shepard, Benjamin Heim / Noonan, Mark J.: ''Brooklyn Tides. The Fall and Rise of a Global Borough'' (transcript Verlag, 2018)
* Snyder-Grenier, Ellen M. ''Brooklyn!: an illustrated history'' (Temple University Press, 2004)
* Warf, Barney. "The reconstruction of social ecology and neighborhood change in Brooklyn." ''Environment and Planning D'' (1990) 8#1 pp: 73–96.
* Wellman, Judith. ''Brooklyn's Promised Land: The Free Black Community of Weeksville, New York'' (2014)
* Wilder, Craig Steven. ''A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn 1636–1990'' (Columbia University Press, 2013)
External links
Official website of the Brooklyn Borough President
History
* Digital Public Library of America
Items related to Brooklyn various dates.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online, 1841–1902(from the Brooklyn Public Library)
''Notes Geographical and Historical, relating to the Town of Brooklyn, in Kings County on Long-Island.'' (1824) An Online Electronic Text Edition.by Gabriel Furman
"Becoming Wards One By One"''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' (May 4, 1894). p. 12.
{{Authority control
Brooklyn,
Boroughs of New York City
County seats in New York (state)
Former villages in New York City
Former towns in New York City
Populated places established in 1634
Populated coastal places in New York (state)
Long Island
1634 establishments in the Dutch Empire
Former cities in New York City
Majority-minority counties in New York, Kings County, New York