Existing comment:
Brooklyn South of the Bridge
Brooklyn was a vigorous and independent city, the third largest in the United States, when construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began. The cultural and social center of Brooklyn was the Heights, just south of the bridge. Lining the shore below the Heights and to the south were warehouses and factories serving the active port. The ferry lines carried over 50 million passengers per year, mostly commuters, to New York by 1870 and the numbers grew rapidly in the next decade. |