Brooklyn

one of the five boroughs of New York City. It occupies the western end of Long Island for ten miles solid. With the exception of several fragments, notably Prospect Park, the range of hills in which Washington sought to keep the force of Howe at bay have been graded, paved, and converted into a handsome residence section. Brooklyn was incorporated in 1801. In the course of growth it absorbed a full score of villages until it was the fourth city of the Union, but it was in turn consolidated with New York in 1898.

Brooklyn has been called "the sleeping place of Manhattan." Wealthy New Yorkers of the brownstone front type have been able to maintain homes up Central Park way, and New York's poor have congregated in the down town slums; but the well to do--the thrifty--have sought homes on Long Island. It is estimated that from 50,000 to 100,000 people, enough for a large city in themselves, leave New York City for Brooklyn at nightfall. The problem of transportation has been a serious one. It is not an easy matter to move a hundred thousand people in an hour; yet all desire to go at about the same time. Steam ferries in-numerable ply from shore to shore of the East River, connecting with Brooklyn car lines. A suspension bridge, as wide as a street and having two stories, was swung across on huge wire cables in 1883. Two others are in course of erection, and a tunnel under the East River will be opened by the Rapid Transit Commission ere long.

The parks, schools, libraries, streets, and transit facilities of Brooklyn have been well and honestly managed, presenting a marked contrast to the thievery current at times in New York. Brooklyn has been called a city of churches. Plymouth Church, long the pastorate of Henry Ward Beecher, and the Tabernacle, the church of Thomas De Witt Talmage, are here.

Brooklyn is not wholly a residence city. Aside from the thousands of shops, groceries, palatial stores, and other places of business that pertain to a city of a million and a third of people it is the seat of enormous manufacturing interests. Nearly $6,000,000 a year are paid to wage earners in foundry and machine shops. Nine-tenths of the sugar consumed in the United States is refined at Brooklyn. From $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 worth of coffee is roasted here each year for the large wholesale houses. The printing and binding of a large part of the books issued by New York publishers are done in Brooklyn. There are many other important industries, as the making of ropes, bagging, gloves, and porcelain. Few cities of the Union exceed Brooklyn in the total annual value of manufactures.

The United States navy yard attracts many visitors. It is the best equipped yard possessed by the government. Monster battleships are received here for shelter and repairs and the government is also undertaking the construction of ships on its own account. The yard is located on Wallabout Bay, where the floating prisons of the British rode at anchor during the Revolutionary War. Over 11,000 Americans who died from inhuman treatment on board of these prison hulks in sight of green trees, air, and water, lie buried here in the government grounds.

See New York City