Brooklyn Car Rentals - Brooklyn History

Brooklyn has held a special place in the American imagination for many years; what's not to love about Coney Island, the Brooklyn Bridge and who could forget the Dodgers?! Brooklyn is home to the true American experience, while at the same time it offers a save haven to international visitors; Brooklyn is the quintessential city of immigrants. As you drive through the streets in your Brooklyn rental car crack open the windows and listen to the wave of foreign accents that float through the air! Languages like Creole, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese are just a few found in the Brooklyn Borough, resulting in a cultural experience like no other! Brooklyn is also the largest of the five New York City boroughs with over 2.3 million people living there.

Every American has a soft spot in their heart reserved for Brooklyn… perhaps because it's said that one out of every seven Americans can trace their roots back through the boroughs streets! If you're interested in learning more about the history of this New York City borough before reserving your Brooklyn car rental, read on for a brief summary.

The Colonial Years

Before the Dutch settled in Manhattan, the land that would later become Brooklyn was home to a group of American Indians who called themselves the Lenape. Lenape means "The People" and they included groups of Nayack and Canarsee who lived a prosperous live fishing and growing various crops.

When the Dutch arrived in the early 1600's they founded five villages - Bushwick, Brooklyn, Flatbush, Flatlands and New Utrecht. A later village was added in 1643 named Gravesend. In 1674 the British captured the Dutch territory, collecting the six villages under the Kings County, making it a part of the crown colony New York.

By 1698 settlers had immigrated to the Brooklyn area from Germany, Scandinavia, England, France along with a large number of black slaves bought in from Africa. Brooklyn's past is shadowed by a dark cloud of slavery - by the year 1771 and the Revolutionary War, nearly one third of the Kings County population was slaves.

During the Revolution a historic battle was fought at Brooklyn, where George Washington's inexperienced troops suffered immense fatalities, narrowly escaping annihilation. The British would occupy Manhattan and Brooklyn for the duration of the war.

The Early Days

Before Brooklyn car rentals crowed the busy borough streets, Brooklyn was a tiny village with only a few houses. In 1794 there were approximately 100 one-story buildings in the village and the roads were unpaved, resulting in extremely muddy traveling. As New York flourished, so did Brooklyn. The East River was soon filled with rowboats, sailboats, and horse powered ferries funneling food grown on the rich Long Island soil. Brooklyn acted as the transport dock for much of the surplus product at the time, allowing the tiny village to flower into a full fledged city. A steam ferry service was opened in 1814 which allowed wealthy businessmen to live in the Brooklyn Heights, as they were now provided essay access across the East River. An influx of Irish immigrants flowed into Brooklyn at the turn of the century, where they found work in small factories along the waterfront and the new U.S. Navy yard. Economic and industrial business boomed in 1825 as the Erie Canal was completed and factories began to spring up all along the landscape. A public school system was set up, gas lights illuminated the public streets, and an impressive city hall was erected to symbolize Brooklyn pride. Between 1840 and 1845 Brooklyn population soared to nearly 80, 000, transforming Brooklyn into the third largest city in the United States. By 1855 Brooklyn was home to 205, 000 residence, many of who were foreign-born. More than one million people populated Brooklyn at the turn of the century, and the construction of the historic Brooklyn Bridge was completed.

The 20th Century

The 20th century has seen a vast expansion of Brooklyn and a total urbanization. Innovations were made in transportation (i.e. that Brooklyn car renal you're about to reserve!), manufacturing, industry and much more. Brooklyn played a vital part in the Post-War years after World War One and has since grown to be one of the most influential areas of the United States.

All Car Rent a Car is proud to offer Brooklyn car rentals to the proud residents of New York City's largest borough so go ahead and reserve your car today!