One of the reasons we give names to neighborhoods is for the community to have a sense of its past, a tie with its history.
Nowhere is that truer than with Canarsie.
For it was the Canarsie Indians who saw Giovanni da Verrazzano enter New York Harbor; it was the Canarsie who were here to greet Henry Hudson when he stepped on the shores of Brooklyn.
The Canarsie fished here, oystered here, farmed here, and lived here in longhouses.
A Dutchman, Jacob Van Corlaer, bought the land from Canarsie chiefs Penhawitz and Kaskapettino, and the Dutch settled there on the swamps near Jamaica Bay. They named it Canarsie (sometimes spelled Canarsee) — which most likely is an Indian word meaning “fenced land” or “fort,” for the fences built by the Dutch farmers, although some believe it comes from the French “canard,” for “duck.”
The area then was part of the Dutch town of New Amersfoort, but when the English took over in 1664, they changed the name to Flatlands.
It was a quiet, lightly populated area, primarily a fishing village, until the 1860s when the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad was built, bringing new visitors to the shore and new residents to live there.
In 1907, the Golden City Amusement Park opened where the Canarsie Pier is today, and the waterfront became a popular recreation area. During the 1920s, however, the waters of Jamaica Bay became polluted, ruining the clamming and fishing businesses. Golden City burned down, and in 1939, the entire site was leveled to construct the Belt Parkway (known then as the Circumferential Highway). Meanwhile, the City of New York built the 600-foot Canarsie Pier, which became part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.
Canarsie’s wetlands were filled in, and its marshlands became sites for housing. With a growing population, the old swampy Canarsie became more of a typical American suburb.
