Bay Ridge Brooklyn

Early settlements

South Brooklyn was originally settled by the Canarsee Indians, part of the Lenape people, who farmed and hunted the land. They established several routes across Brooklyn, including a path from Fulton Ferry along the East River, extending southward to Gowanus Creek, Sunset Park, and Bay Ridge. The Canarsee traded with other indigenous peoples and, by the early 17th century, with Dutch and English settlers.

The first European settlement in Bay Ridge occurred in 1636 when Willem Adriaenszen Bennett and Jacques Bentyn purchased 936 acres between 28th and 60th Streets in what is now Sunset Park. By the 1640s, Dutch settlers had acquired the land, laid out their farms along the waterfront, and soon displaced the Canarsee, who had left Brooklyn by the 18th century. Present-day Bay Ridge was the westernmost part of New Utrecht, founded in 1657 by the Dutch. The area consisted of two sister villages: Yellow Hook to the north, named for its yellow soil (“Hook” is derived from the Dutch “hoek,” meaning “corner”), and Fort Hamilton to the south, named for the military installation at its center.

Yellow Hook remained mostly farmland until the late 1840s. In 1848, Third Avenue was widened, and two years later, a group of artists founded a colony called Ovington Village, named after the family who owned the farmland. In 1853, Yellow Hook changed its name to avoid association with yellow fever. “Bay Ridge” was suggested by local horticulturist James Weir, inspired by the area’s high ridge that offered views of New York Bay. The natural beauty attracted the wealthy, who built country homes along Shore Road, overlooking the water.

Staten Island connection and later years

Plans to build a Staten Island Tunnel, a railroad or subway tunnel from Bay Ridge to Staten Island, date back to 1890. By the 1910s, two proposals emerged for a tunnel branching off from the Fourth Avenue subway in Bay Ridge, either at Fort Hamilton or between 65th and 67th Streets. The latter plan was chosen, and work began in 1923, but the project was halted two years later. In 1927, two years after the tunnel’s cancellation, engineer David B. Steinman proposed a vehicular bridge, the “Liberty Bridge,” across the Narrows. This revived interest in both vehicular and rail tunnels, but the bridge proposal was disapproved by the United States Department of War in 1934. The idea for a bridge was revived in 1936, and by 1943, the city’s Board of Estimate had approved it, despite Bay Ridge residents’ concerns about its impact on the neighborhood’s character.

Robert Moses, chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), revived plans for what would become the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1947. U.S. Representative Donald Lawrence O’Toole, representing Bay Ridge, opposed the bridge, believing it would damage the neighborhood’s character. However, the U.S. military approved the proposal, and in 1957, Moses proposed expanding Brooklyn’s Gowanus Expressway and extending it to the Narrows Bridge via Seventh Avenue, which would cut through Bay Ridge. This drew community opposition, with residents preferring the approach to follow the Belt Parkway along the Brooklyn shore. Despite a hearing for concerned residents, the Board of Estimate affirmed the Narrows Bridge plan in October 1958, angering Bay Ridge residents as the construction would displace 7,500 people. Fort Lafayette, part of New York City’s defense system along with Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, was also destroyed and replaced by the base of the bridge’s east tower. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964.