Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs (districts) that make up New York City. It lies at the southwest end of Long Island, across the East River from Manhattan. Brooklyn is an important industrial center and ranks as one of the nation’s leading seaports.
Brooklyn covers 97 square miles (251 square kilometers) and has 2,736,074 people. It is the most heavily populated of the five boroughs. If it were an independent city, Brooklyn would rank as the nation’s third largest city. Its neighborhoods include Bedford-Stuyvesant, which has had many African American residents; Bensonhurst, which attracted many Italian Americans; and Brighton Beach, where many Russians settled.
The Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connect Brooklyn and Manhattan. Every day, thousands of commuters travel between the two boroughs. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, links Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Brooklyn’s landmarks include Prospect Park, the Coney Island beach, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1890 to 1957, Brooklyn was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, a major league baseball team. In 2012, the Nets of the National Basketball Association relocated to Brooklyn from New Jersey. They play in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The New York Islanders of the National Hockey League played many home games at the Barclays Center from 2015 to 2020.
Brooklyn’s industries include the preparation of pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding and ship repair, and the production of hardware, plastics, and knitwear. Oceangoing ships carry freight to and from Brooklyn’s docks. Health care, retail trade and hospitality, and other service industries employ many residents.
The Canarsie people were the first inhabitants of Brooklyn. In the 1600’s, Dutch settlers named the area for a village in Holland called Breuckelen. Brooklyn was incorporated as a city in 1834. For many years, it was primarily a residential area and was connected to Manhattan by ferries. Industries began to develop in Brooklyn during the 1800’s. The population rose because of the arrival of European immigrants from 1840 to 1924.
In 1898, Brooklyn became a part of New York City. In the 1950’s, large numbers of African Americans and Puerto Ricans moved there. But the borough’s population declined by about 500,000 between 1950 and 1980 because many people moved to suburban areas. It increased by about 500,000 from 1980 to 2020 as immigrants from around the world settled in Brooklyn.
