Brooklyn

Brooklyn

  The next region we would like to tell about is the most populous borough of New York – Brooklyn. Sections of the area were first settled by the Dutch in the 1630s, and six largely agricultural towns—Brooklyn, Flatlands, Flatbush, New Utrecht, Bushwick, and Gravesend – soon thrived.  The region grew modestly as an appendage of Manhattan. During the American Revolution, Brooklyn was the scene of the Battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776). After the British occupied New York, their notorious prison ships were anchored in Wallabout Bay; a memorial to the thousands who died stands in Fort Greene Park. Early in the 19th century, Brooklyn became the world’s first modern commuter suburb, and Brooklyn Heights was transformed into a wealthy residential community. Modern-day enterpreneurs have restored ferry service across the East River.

  To the chagrin of New York, Brooklyn became an independent city in 1834 and soon adopted the grid form of street layout. By the 1880s it had about 20,000 industrial jobs and handled more waterborne tonnage than its rival. Brooklyn had established in the end of 19-th century its own Academy of Music and Historical Society. So, all this factors ranked it among the largest cities in the country in the last four decades of the 19th century. However, the construction of John and Washinghton Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan (completed 1883) doomed its independent existence, as business interests craved closer ties to the metropolis. Overcoming the opposition of the local Democratic machine, Brooklyn accepted consolidation by a margin of only 277 votes and became a part of Greater New York in 1898.

Brooklyn Bridge, it's constuction in March 1909.

  In the early 1900s through the 1930s, transportation, jobs and industry flourished in the borough. The next great wave of newcomers were African Americans arriving from the south — by 1930, more than 60 percent of the African American population in Brooklyn was born outside the borough. Thousands of Puerto Rican immigrants also settled in Brooklyn, landing in Red Hook, Downtown, and  Greenpoint.

Early Puerto Rican immigrants in New York City.

  The industry boom began to wane in the 1950s, with manufacturers suddenly moving to cheaper locations in other cities. And so the makeup of Brooklyn changed yet again, with many upper and middle class families moving to the suburbs. Many Jewish communities stayed in Brooklyn but moved to Flatbush, Borough Park, Eastern Parkway, and Brighton Beach, where there are still strong Jewish communities today. And many Italian families moved to Bensonhurt and Gravesend, which are also still Italian enclaves — though you can count on the demographics of any Brooklyn neighborhood to change over time.
  Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville have some of the worst slums in New York, with blocks of burned-out and abandoned buildings. Tensions between African Americans and Hasidic Jews in the biracial area of Crown Heights led to a prolonged conflict in the 1990s, and their relationship has remained strained. On the other hand, careful use of landmark protection legislation has enabled several historic neighbourhoods to restore their viability. 
  

Police officers try to calm Hasidim during a confrontation at Utica Ave during Crown Heights riots in August of 1991.

  Contemporary Brooklyn retains much of the independent character it displayed as an industrial city. Today, Brooklyn is still home to a diverse population and immigrants from around the world. You will find thriving immigrant communities from the Caribbean, Latin America, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, China, and Korea across the borough.

Used source: https://allthatsinteresting.com/new-york-immigrants-photos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn
https://www.britannica.com