December 19: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1860, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “We would remind our citizens who are fond of skating that there is no necessity to travel to Central Park for the purpose. There is a large sheet of good ice fit for skating upon, near the corner of 5th avenue and 3rd street, which can be reached by taking the cars of the Central Railroad Co. No doubt the owners of the property in question, ex-Mayor Talmage and E.C. Litchfield, Esq., would interpose no objection to having the lots flooded when necessary, and such arrangements made as are needed to keep the ice in good skating order.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1903, the Eagle reported, “Standing almost beneath the shadow of the great steel tower which supports the cables at the Brooklyn end of the largest suspension bridge on earth, Mayor Seth Low, addressing a throng of thousands of eager listeners, shortly before 3 o’clock this afternoon, pronounced the momentous words: ‘Mr. Commissioner, I accept the Williamsburg Bridge from your hands and I now pronounce it to be open from this day forward to the public use.’ Instantly upon the Mayor’s proclamation there went up against the lowering sky such a shout of joyous applause as threatened to rend the leaden clouds asunder. The cheers of those within hearing of the Mayor’s voice were taken up by those farther away and still farther, the applause swelling in volume as it was taken up by successive cohorts and rolling in both directions along the main thoroughfare of the Eastern District like the breaking of a huge ocean wave along a rocky shore, ever increasing in depth and volume until it lost all semblance to the human voice and became an inarticulate roar as of an earthquake. When the first wave of this great, chaotic sound rolled out over the East River, the strident voices of thousands of steam craft were joined to the tumult of the land, the booming of cannon was added to the uproar and it seemed as if the river itself were a living thing, speaking with a voice of thunder its rejoicing at the joining of the sister boroughs by the new bonds of steel.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.