Kings County: Why Brooklyn Was Once Its Own City

Before Brooklyn was a borough, it was a city. Before it was a city, it was Kings County, a collection of Dutch farming towns on the western tip of Long Island that eventually grew into something that by 1898 held over 800,000 people and ranked as the fourth-largest city in the United States.

On January 1, 1898, Brooklyn voted to consolidate into Greater New York. The margin was 277 votes. It has been arguing with that decision ever since.

Kings County: Named for a King

Kings County was established in 1683 as one of the original counties of New York Province. It was named for King Charles II of England, who ruled from 1660 to 1685. The Dutch settlement of Breuckelen, founded in 1646 on the East River shore of Long Island, would eventually become the city around which the rest of the county organized itself.

The county's six original towns, Breuckelen, Boswijck (Bushwick), Midwout (Flatbush), Nieuw Utrecht, Gravesend, and Flatlands, were predominantly Dutch farming communities. They grew slowly for the first two centuries of European settlement, separated from Manhattan by the East River and connected only by ferry.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard

Established in 1801 on Wallabout Bay, the Brooklyn Navy Yard became one of the most important naval shipbuilding facilities in American history. The USS Maine was built here. The USS Missouri, on whose deck Japan signed the World War II surrender, was built here. At its peak during World War II, the Yard employed over 70,000 workers around the clock and launched a ship every two weeks.

The Navy Yard closed as a military installation in 1966. It operates today as an industrial park. The physical infrastructure of the original yard survives on the waterfront between the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges.

The Vote and What It Meant

The 1898 consolidation vote was contested. Brooklyn's Democratic political machine opposed joining New York City. The margin of 277 votes in a city of 800,000 reflects how genuinely divided the population was.

Brooklyn became a borough. It never fully became just a neighborhood. The Kings County identity persisted in the county name, in the Brooklyn attitude, in the ongoing sense that this place has its own logic that does not defer to Manhattan.

The Kings County Riders tee and the Kings County Crew tee are built on that history. Shop both at BklynMotors.com.