page_title: Downtown Brooklyn
section_title: Early development
hierarchical_section_title: Downtown Brooklyn / History / Early development
caption_attribution_description: English: Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower in Downtown Brooklyn, New York.
context_page_description: Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City, United States, and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is known for its office and residential buildings, such as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower and the MetroTech Center office complex.
  Since the rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn in 2004, the area has been undergoing a transformation, with $9 billion of private investment and $300 million in public improvements underway. The area is a growing hub for education. In 2017, New York University announced that it would invest over $500 million to renovate and expand the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and its surrounding Downtown Brooklyn-based campus.
  Downtown Brooklyn is part of Brooklyn Community District 2 and its primary ZIP Codes are 11201 and 11217. It is patrolled by the 84th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.
context_section_description: This area was originally inhabited by Lenape Native Americans, until the 17th century. Area close to the Wallabout Bay was called Rinnegokonk. At that time the Dutch arrived, gained control of the land, and called it Breuckelen. The waterfront area being sold by Indians to Joris Jansen Rapelje, who used the land for farm purposes. Until 1814, Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights remained sparsely populated.  Robert Fulton’s new steam ferry then began to offer an easy commuting option to and from downtown Manhattan. It made Brooklyn Heights Manhattan’s first suburb, and put Downtown Brooklyn on its way to becoming a commercial center, and the heart of the City of Brooklyn.
  The city was home to many prominent abolitionists at a time when most of New York was indifferent to slavery. Many Brooklyn churches agitated against legalized slavery in the 1850s and 1860s and some acted as safehouses as part of the Underground Railroad movement. Walt Whitman was fired from his job as a reporter at the Brooklyn Eagle due to his support for the Wilmot Proviso when he lived at Willoughby and Myrtle Avenues. A group of buildings at 223, 225, 227, 231, 233, and 235 Duffield Street, in addition to the African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church located in MetroTech Center, were believed to be among the safehouses.
  The middle 19th century growth of the Port of New York caused shipping to spill over into the City of Brooklyn; many buildings now used for other purposes were built as warehouses and factories. Manufacturing intensified with the building of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges; buildings from that time include the 1915 Sperry Gyroscope Company building, now known as the Howard Building of CUNY. New, extensive infrastructure served the Brooklyn Bridge trolleys.
caption: The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, a prominent symbol of Downtown Brooklyn
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "E-500", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "314", "Image YResolution": "314", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "808", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 18, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3768", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4712", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "7/10", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "925/256", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "45", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2448", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3264", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3644", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Soft", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "0b7179cd89488fe85f192874281d3ce8"}