Brooklyn is a former city in

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, now annexed to

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. Brooklyn first formed from the amalgamation in 1856 of two settlements, the sites of which are both now within the city limits of Oakland:

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

and Clinton. The name Brooklyn commemorated the ship that had brought

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

settlers to California in 1846. In 1870, Brooklyn absorbed the nearby town of Lynn, which housed a footwear industry, and incorporated as a city. The San Francisco and Oakland Railroad had built a station at San Antonio. When the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North Americ ...

took over the line in 1870, the name was changed to Brooklyn. In 1872, voters approved their city's annexation by Oakland. Afterward, when the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

took over the rail line in 1883, the Brooklyn station name was changed to East Oakland. A post office was opened in Brooklyn in 1855; it became a branch of the Oakland post office in 1878. Looking at historical maps, Brooklyn is shown as a fairly large area, lying adjacent and to the south of Lake Merritt and the Piedmont tract, and adjacent and to the north of Alameda, the San Leandro Creek, and the town of

San Leandro San Leandro (Spanish for " St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland to the northwest, and Ashland, Castro Valley, and Hayward to the south ...

. Today this is East Oakland.

Demographics

Brooklyn first appeared as a city in the 1870 U.S. Census.

References

External links

Brooklyn - Oakland Wiki
Former municipalities in California Neighborhoods in Oakland, California Populated places established in 1856 1872 disestablishments in California 1856 establishments in California {{AlamedaCountyCA-geo-stub