Joining Together of New Yorkers
(1860 - 1898)
(1860 - 1898)
1867 - Brooklyn Bridge construction begins
A large part of maintaining New York City’s dominance was to connect the commerce and culture throughout the greater New York City area (Scobey 2002). In the 1860’s the city was still the 5 separate burrows with different governing authorities that occasionally came together to reap the benefits of the strong commercial location. This bridge signified the “incorporation of the cities” into a “grand municipality” (Scobey 2002, p. 162). In 1867 construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge. This project would connect Manhattan with the second largest borough and third largest city, Brooklyn (Scobey 2002). The project was completed in 1883. While the bridge connected the economics of the two cities, it also provided a link to each of the communities. Until this point the area was completely separated by the East River, and the only way across was by boat. This merger was not welcomed with open arms by everyone in the community. The people of Brooklyn felt as if they lost their individual identity (Gladding 2004). Manhattan, on the other hand, was very excited about the completion of the bridge.
1898 – Consolidation of the five boroughs into
Greater New York
While the Brooklyn Bridge was the first step towards consolidation, the true joining of all 5 boroughs happened 10 plus years later. Brooklyn was split between wanting to join up with Manhattan; split between a merged economy and a loss of culture. Manhattan had been expanding up for several years towards the Bronx. Unlike Brooklyn, the Bronx was looking to expand, and Manhattan was a willing participant. The merger would be mutually beneficial as the Bronx was a major producing site [industrial] for the greater New York area, and could use the support from Manhattan (Lankevich 1998). Staten Island, to the south, believed that they would also benefit economically from a merger with Manhattan. Queens, had many commercial connections to Manhattan, but had a difficult time deciding whether or not to join the movement (Lankevich 1998). Eventually, they too signed on board. The New York area was composed of 40 different municipalities, so the joining under one title would be difficult in terms of voting, election processes, and establishing enough public officials (Lankevich 1998). The whole voting process took around 3 years, and the final vote in 1898 combine all 5 boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island) into one grand city, New York.