@@morrisbarnes3356 bong!! Let me know and when you get to modern era (basically LaGuardia to the present) it gets real. My mom’s mother got here in the early 50’s but dad was born here. And my older uncles were born here too. So we talking late 30’s mid 40’s. To see how the city went from scope of life centered around manhattan to all the other boroughs blew me away. Answered a ton of questions. It’s on Amazon I think at the moment. A must watch film indeed.
As a native New Yorker who teaches Urban Sociology here at the Community college and lives in Brooklyn (From Queens), you did a fantastic job. I will be incorporating this into my class next spring! (Please do Queens some time soon!!)
Stop it. Equating the growth of New Yorks harbor to Native whale trade is just idiotic and manipulative. That’s not the reason New Yorks harbors did so well commercially. Just stop it. And guess what, I got 8% in me. But I’m not just going to lie to try and prop up and idolize people based on culture for no valid reason. Stop lying to yourselves.
I was born and grew up across the street from the Brooklyn Bridge, a block from the Fulton Fish Market. As a child I was fascinated with very old people and would ask about what the world was like when they were young. I remember chatting with an old man on the train who told me the Brooklyn of his childhood was one big potato field. I also loved talking to an old woman who lived in my building. She had been born into slavery. Her memories mostly came from her family, since she was a young child then. But it always made me think that if she also loved the stories of old people, she could have chatted with someone who was born before the Revolution!
Yes! His fingerprints are all over Brooklyn. Also, Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza, as well as Green-Wood (once the popular tourist destination in the City) can easily be an entire episode.
Gravesend, Brooklyn native here. Believe me, a vast majority of the people/families who have lived here for 40-70+ years know the history of the area and its significance. Great video.
@atOmly I grew up in God's Country (Brooklyn to those who don't know it) and well remember the anger everyone directed at Walter O'Malley for moving the Dodgers to Los Angeles. My dad (former semi-boxer from Puerto Rico) took a newspaper that had O'Malley's photo and punched it while saying that if he the opportunity, he'd smack that greedy so-and-so in the face for stealing our team. Indeed, everyone blamed him for this misfortune. However, revisionist historian now claim (and have proven) that it was Moses who was responsible for taking away the Dodgers. On top of being a racist m**********r he caused the loss of our team! May he rot in you-know-where!
Thanks a lot! I’m from East New York born and raised. Grew up on Cozine Ave and the bus I took B6 was on the corner of cozine and Van Siclen (for some reason the K is gone). It took me years to figure out Brooklyn. I was about 25 when it all came together. And you pretty much nailed it. I grew up waking down New Lots Ave all my life. There’s an old Dutch church still there. I went to Canarsie high. I played baseball on Flatlands avenue on what was farmland for regular people at some point but also for the Sunnydale food company. The old farm was so big it was turned into 5 baseball fields which we called “5 Diamonds. The little league was called The Latin Souls. Obviously I can be up here for days about this. You’re the first person I can think of who came at this the right way. One thing I found out was why one high school was called Eastern District. Had something to do I think with Williamsburg being a city and that was the eastern part of the city. I also use to notice in my hood on Pennsylvania Ave a building had “26th ward” etched on it. Something you don’t hear of much in Brooklyn politics. It took a long time to find out the origin of that one. Once again great work. On and East New York was named by Col John Pitkin(Ave) whom erroneously thought by adding “East” to New York people would assume it meant Manhattan he was off…..waaaaaay off. 😂😂😂😂
I was born at Bay Ridge Hospital (now gone). My grandfather moved his family from Manhattan to Brooklyn when he bought a small apartment building there in the 1920s. This video gave me some perspective on Brooklyn as a whole and was a joy to watch. Thank you so much.
As a Brooklynite for 44 years, I enjoyed this video so much, had to watch it twice. I live within walking distance of the the oldest house in New York State. Thank you so much for that information.
Being a born-and-bred New Yorker, I LOVE this kind of history! I remember learning about the Dutch settlement of New Netherland when I was in third grade. One of my favorite books at the time was about two NYC kids who get on the downtown subway in the present day (1965) and end up getting off in Dutch New Amsterdam. I was very surprised as I got older when I discovered that most people outside of New York had never heard of characters like Peter Stuyvesant, Hendrick Hudson, or Adrian van der Donk. To me, it was akin to not knowing anything about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln!
I was talking to some Dutch people at a pension hotel in Kyoto a couple weeks ago. I said I lived in New York City (Brooklyn specifically). One said "you mean New Amsterdam."
It's local history. People from Massachusetts would wonder why you knew so little about the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, people in Virginia would expect you to know about Jamestown, people from Florida would think you knew all about De Soto's expedition. But like you, I'm from NY, and we weren't taught very much about any of those things.
@@emjayay Those people are not very smart if they don't know that New Amsterdam is now New York!!! The Dutch lost the city to the English, no matter what those people call it.
The Dutch lost New Amsterdam to the English, *PEACEFULLY* , by possibly ¿war-wearied? peglegged Peter Stuyvesant (the equivalent of George Washington for New York).
When I moved to US, I lived on Neck Road and East 7 Street in Brooklyn. And I immediately felt how the whole neighborhood had this historical spirit. Especially if you cross Ocean Parkway and walk down towards McDonald Ave. I'm glad that my new US journey started from NYC. 🇺🇲
Great vid! Another interesting one could be the development of various Chinatowns in NYC (Chinatown, Flushing, Sunset Park, etc)... you'll get food along the way too.
I'm from the Caribbean but moved here as a kid and love Brooklyn, can't picture myself living anywhere else in the world. The people and the culture is beautiful to be apart of, I loved the history lesson ❤️
Non-Native New Yorker : I was Born in Kenya🇰🇪 - But grew up in the suburbs of Delaware. (2 hours south of NYC) I Moved to Brooklyn two years ago (Flatbush). And I can’t explain to people enough how much I love this city. Specifically Brooklyn. I got rid of my car when I moved here and I spend most of my time exploring BK with my bike 🚲 it marvels me how rich the culture here is in everything from the people to the cuisine to the architecture etc. so far my favorite little hidden corner of the city is this secluded run down part of prospect park (Vale of Cashmere) - it’s a large sunken garden with a pond that’s overgrown , the images of what it once looked like online are gorgeous but the blend of nature taking back what man once tamed is beautiful. Also not many people know it’s down there. Just Thought I’d share. Also that blue & white map of BK in the beginning of the video is 👌🏾 where can I find it ?
As a (non-native) Brooklynite, I really loved this video. I think it would have been fun to go over the consolidation of Brooklyn itself (which predates the consolidation of NYC) as well!
My family was an early immigrant NYC family… and I have a few family stories and quips. I had a great great great aunt who was beloved by my grandmother.. she was spring cleaning her apartment on Prince St in SoHo, tripped over the sill while opening her large counterweighted window, and fell to hear death on the sidewalk. Now every time I walk it I wonder which designer store or cafe it happened in front of… though back then the area was largely industrial revolution factories and immigrant tenants. My grandmother was born in Brooklyn and her grandparents on both sides had lived in a townhouse they built… decades later when they were in old age, the city seized the entire neighborhood via eminent domain under Robert Moses… gave them scraps for it.. and dozed it to build one of the first “projects” and a park in Crown Heights.
I think a really cool spin-off to this series would be explaining New Haven, CT's map. It's much smaller than the cities you typically cover, but the entire place is BRIMMING with history and culture. Everything from Yale's influence to the city's strategic location on a natural harbor, nestled between two giant free-standing rocks that acted as sentry towers for the British and later, American rebels. Then there's the famous Wooster Street/Little Italy full of our beloved apizza spots. Another interesting note is that New Haven is surrounded by 3 other "Havens", West Haven, East Haven, and North Haven. All of which are separate municipalities that essentially behave as one much larger city. New Haven is also very close to New York City, and it shares quite a bit of history. New Haven is just a super under rated New England/Tristate/East Coast city, purely because it's not a big city on its own. However New Haven County has nearly 900,000 people, the vast majority of which are less than a 25 minute drive into downtown New Haven. If you are in New York, I'd highly suggest taking the Metro North line from Grand Central into New Haven one weekend. You can easily spend an entire day trying the amazing pizza, checking out Yale's awesome free museums, walking around Yale/Downtown, and enjoying the beautiful architecture and micro-bustle of the city. It's one of my favorite cities in the New York Tri-state, and it's super easy to get to. They also have some decent beaches compared to NYC in Stratford, Fairfield, Milford. If you've never been, and you do go one day, you can really see why super rich wall street bros buy up the property in southern CT.
Great video revealing a lot of the enormous history of NYC and Brooklyn. What I always find amazing is how the city lives over and with its previous history. This can be understood by reading some of our greatest authors and how they incorporate the city’s older landscapes into their works. For example; Henry Miller describing Bushwick and its trolly tracks along Myrtle avenue, or Hubert Selby describing the docks of Red Hook or Betty Smith’s Williamsburg as described in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Your video images of modern day Gravesend with its auto shops and trains surrounding a 17th century house and cemetery are so fascinating in that regard.
Fantastic video history. Old guy born and bred New Yorker. Grew up in Brighton Beach Brooklyn. Lived in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. ( never ventured to SI). Great work. Hoping for more.
Brooklyn is such a great city as I always recalled when driving back into Brooklyn over the Brooklyn bridge during the early 80's the "Welcome to Brooklyn The 7th largest city in America" sign. My wonderful memories of Brooklyn are etched in my mind till death.
Native Brooklynite here - born & raised in the Gravesend Projects (1960's) in Coney Island🎡🎢🎠🙌 (ironically not in the Gravesend neighborhood) And I still live in Brooklyn! (Fort Greene)🌉🌟 I'm always fascinated by the history of Brooklyn. It's a lot of ground to cover, so I'm looking forward to more of these videos. Thank u❤️
I am a native NYC person. I love that you are interested in its history. Not trying to sound like this city is the best, especially these days, but, the planning and design of it is really complex, arbitrary and interesting. A lot of that is also disappering, by the way. So many historical things I loved going up are getting destroyed or getting chased by corporate interests.
Watching from Gravesend, lived here for all 26 years of my life! The cemetery where Deborah Moody is buried was actually a favorite spot of mine to smoke weed in high school. Gravesend is a pretty quiet neighborhood, but the cemetery is the MOST peaceful place in a 30 minute radius (other than the beach at Coney Island in the middle of the night at winter).
Brooklyn has the most peaceful places to relax and it be a minimum amount of disturbance. Especially 10 years ago. But, even that all has changed a bit, with everyone fleeting to my city of Brooklyn 😢. That being said, Kings county is still one of the MOST romantic boros of all NYC boros. 😊
How sad that you would ruin the peaceful history of the cemetery by smoking weed. I'm sure you ruined it for many visitors who also wanted peace and beauty.
@@cathynewyork7918 Considering the cemetery is locked behind a gate, I doubt there are many visitors looking for peace and quiet there. I would hop the fence and find the most isolated corner blocked by trees to smoke. Peaceful NYC places to me are anywhere I can't see or hear people and cars. The smell of weed is omnipresent in NY at this point, it didn't bother me before I started smoking and it doesn't bother me now that I've stopped.
@@Korvisio I live in New York City, and the constant smell of weed does bother me. I find it offensive that you would trespass in the cemetery to smoke weed. Disrespectful.
When are you coming to Philly Daniel?? The Philadelphia street grid was the first in the United States, not to mention it was also the capital before DC!
@@PatcoStreetMan Center City and the Loop are pretty close to each other in terms of density. Amazing for Philly, because that's much bigger than the Loop, 7.7 sq mi to 1.58 sq mi. So to maintain a similar density at close to 4.9x the size
@@mkhanman12345 You could make a case for that but you could also say that Philly served as the de-facto capital of the US during the 1st and 2nd continental congress in 1776 and later under the Articles of Confederation from 1790 to 1800. New York was only the capital from 1785 to 1790.
@11:07, the square town shape has a name in French, it's a "Trait-carré" a defensive way to make a colony. We still have ..2 (if I recall) of those design in Quebec City.
Randomly got the video recommended and didnt really know what to expect here but that was super interesting! I grew up in Brooklyn in Bensonhurst and knew a little bit of the history about the original Dutch settlers, but it was especially very interesting to learn about the Gravesend neighborhood since I lived so close to it. I passed by that area every day going to school and never realized why the streets were like that. Its cool how so much of the original Dutch naming was preserved too with road names like New Utrecht Ave and bunch of other roads.
Note: Bensonhurst is adjacent to Gravesend, to its west but going farther north. The exact borders of these neighborhoods differ from one source to another.
This is outstanding ! Thankyou for explaining the 4 squared block neighborhood in Gravesend . I have always noticed that oddity when looking at maps of NYC, especially with its Village Road North and Village Road South streets integrated into it. I never knew why that existed that way until today ! Thanks !!
Took me back to the serenity of Kings Highway-McDonald Ave Culver (F) line. The views of the Verrazano to the West & Manhattan/Downtown Brooklyn skyscrapers to the North. Appreciate the video.
Historic sources, written in Dutch, suggest that it was named by the Dutch governor general Willem Kieft for the Dutch settlement of 's'Gravesande (now 's-Gravenzande) in the Netherlands, which means "Count's Beach" or "Count's Sand".
The Dutch had New Amsterdam for just over 40 years, then ceding it to Britain. They imported slaves from the beginning to build the city for centuries to follow. I truly believe the New Yorker attitude "to each their own" has its roots from the Dutch culture of acceptance. Daniel, please cover the Flatbush parts that are 120 years old with detached houses and driveways. I was so surprised when biking through what felt like a very old suburb or Seattle's Capitol Hill.
Brooklyn still had many Dutch farms in Brooklyn after losing Manhattan to the English. The Brooklyn accent, where “the” is pronounced “da,” is I believe, a language remnant from the Dutch.
@@bluebox2000How do the Dutch have a "culture of acceptance" when they literally enslaved an entire race of human beings simply for being different and anti Blackness continues to be rampant among the Dutch to this day?🤨 Like lets not lie.
a lot of the dutch settlements in brooklyn are still called that but for some reason new utrecht is not called that. the avenue still has than name but that area is multiple neighborhoods. dyker heights, boro park, bensenhurst, etc
Another great video, thank you Daniel ! I've never set foot in Northern America, so I wouldn't know which city to explain with historical maps, but I would venture that any city founded along some shores would be interesting to investigate : from Washington DC or Baltimore, to Detroit or Chicago. If you want some European suggestion, try Lyon in France ! And, as i told you before, if you happen to come back to Vietnam, I'll guide you through Saigon/Cholon for the most in-depth visit you can imagine ! Be well, and keep up the amazing work !
Wonderful video! Thank you for speaking with so many great experts! Selfishly as a Columbia University alum, I’d be interested in you tracing its history in the city, from Alexander Hamilton in Kings College to the controversial expansion into Manhattanville.
Another great video! I love learning how cities evolved and come to be. Sometimes street layouts seem odd till you realize the past features or other factors.
Great work, as always! Maybe something on Chinatown & Flushing (etc.) - the history & timeline (in general and in relation to events elsewhere - e.g., the railroads, etc.)?
I learned a lot and truly love your acknowledgment of this video not being totally comprehensive. So many people want to know everything in 60 seconds, appreciate the great longer-than-a-minute format content!
Thank-you. Fascinating. I'm a Canadian and my NYC touchstone is College Pointe. Our church moved a mother and her two little children from Montreal to College Pointe in the early nineties. We went down in two passenger vans. My wife and I stayed overnight in Fort Lee, N.J just across the Geo. Washington Bridge. I remember looking out our room's window overlooking across the Hudson to Manhattan and feeling how visually overpowering Manhattan appeared in that night fog. So whenever there is talk about NYC, I'm always scouring over College Pointe to see if some memories come back. I actually did a small oil 11x14 oil painting of Geo. Wash. Bridge, the experience was so overpowering/impressionable. I don't know if College Pointe is actually in Brooklyn or Queens. Thanks again.
So not only that Dutch house but there are other "monuments" throughout Brooklyn that bring back to its past history. Perhaps a video of Brooklyn historical homes, roads that go back before the Dutch where here, grave stones ect. (Prospect park has has structures and monuments that pre date the joint of kings and queens counties and a pilgrim cemetery)
I used to live on Lenox Road, in Flatbush, and there was a house across the street (and across Nostrand Avenue) where they grew corn in the front yard. Now that plot is a 15-story apartment tower.
BTW, @DanielismsSteiner, while I lived in Brooklyn for a decade and a half and still love the place and would love to see more about it, I'm especially interested in The Bronx and how, to me at least, it seems like the most European part of the city in terms of its street design (mainly the West Bronx; the East Bronx, less so). The topography led to a lot of necessary decisions that make the streets less boring than a perfect grid, such as step streets and curving ones. It's a borough with so much potential that's left unrealized by a lack of government investment and, unfortunately, a significant population who sees their time there as temporary while they try to make money to fund an escape back to their homeland (rather than investing in the place where they are, now).
Great episode! You should consider making an episode on Indy. The circle city has a unique grid pattern and was the first major city-county consolidation after NYC.
i love your videos and want to see if i can make a suggestion: i think itd be really cool if you can add animations of zooming from macro to micro then to street view. for example, about the cemetery, it would be cool to show the old map, then overlay modern map like google, then zoom in with google earth or something into google street view, then cut to your footage of the actual place. i just found it a little hard to follow which side of the cemetery or which house we are looking at and where they are on the map. I hope it makes sense! Love your channel and hope you do taipei one day!
Small fun fact: I was looking at the Google Map while watching, and as you know, not every firm and industry pops up just when browsing. One that did pop up in Brooklyn Navy Yard, is Steiner Studios. Funny because of your surname! I guess you're not affiliated with them (the viewership would probably be higher), but it was fun to connect those dots from Europe.
I love how many old historical things are just hiding in plain sight in NYC, it's hard to remember how old it is sometimes I'm biased because I'm from there but would love to see a San Fransisco's Map Explained video!
If you wanted to go back to the UK, you could make a video on Bath and Bristol. Both have extensive history in infrastructure, culture and architecture. Outside, i would like to hear more on European cities in Holland, Germany and especially Italy with its reputation for finding roman remains constantly when building infrastructure.
As an inhabitant of Milan, Italy, a city that is not really known for its Roman foundation, I can confirm that our last underground line was postponed by some years because of founding Roman sites, especially in the city centre
Amsterdam has a pretty cool geography history. There are probably already quite some videos about that though, and more may be coming up now they've just kicked off its 750 y anniversary festivities.
Amazing ! I have loved to listen to you explanations about the birth of NYC and the history of others citys around the US, and I'll keep going to watch your videos from France : )
I'm a lifelong native Brooklynite (61 years) living in Bushwick, and this neighborhood alone has a fascinating history that I would love to see told in a video like this.
As a Brooklyn native still living here I was still amazed to find out something I didn't already know. When you went to Gravesend I didn't expect you would find anything interesting there but you did. Now I have to take a little trip down there on my bike so I can see for myself. I've been through there plenty of times but never noticed anything about it, it was just the neighborhood the F train bisected. I see you also have a video on Seattle. I'll have to take a look as that's the only other place I've lived, for a few years back in the 80s.
Awesome video! I did a research project on the transit systems, the bridges, and the lead up to Consolidation in preparation for my history seminar and to honor my grandfather’s Brooklynite heritage! I’d love to see a video or a series on San Francisco and some of the Bay Area cities like Oakland, Berkeley, Sausalito, etc.
Should have made one of the whole New York City and make it 2 hours I'm all here for it
Already been done. Look up New York: a Documentary Film by Ric Burns. It's 12 or so Hours, I've watched it several times.
@@morrisbarnes3356 bong!! Let me know and when you get to modern era (basically LaGuardia to the present) it gets real. My mom’s mother got here in the early 50’s but dad was born here. And my older uncles were born here too. So we talking late 30’s mid 40’s. To see how the city went from scope of life centered around manhattan to all the other boroughs blew me away. Answered a ton of questions. It’s on Amazon I think at the moment. A must watch film indeed.
Agreed
Here here!
YES!!
As a native New Yorker who teaches Urban Sociology here at the Community college and lives in Brooklyn (From Queens), you did a fantastic job. I will be incorporating this into my class next spring! (Please do Queens some time soon!!)
Oh whaat so cool! Thank you!
Stop it. Equating the growth of New Yorks harbor to Native whale trade is just idiotic and manipulative. That’s not the reason New Yorks harbors did so well commercially. Just stop it. And guess what, I got 8% in me. But I’m not just going to lie to try and prop up and idolize people based on culture for no valid reason. Stop lying to yourselves.
QUEENS! We need QUEENS!!
queens is the joke of new york
yes Queens!
As a native New Yorker, I'd binge an entire series dedicated to each of the 5 boroughs! Such a cool, insightful video, can't wait to see more!
As a native New Yorker, just do the four boros. Real New Yorkers DGAF bout Staten Island.
As a Texan, I'd also binge this.
More Brooklyn PLEASE! That was like an appetizer!
I've lived in 4 of the 5 bouroughs and every one of them is deeply fascinating.
I was born and grew up across the street from the Brooklyn Bridge, a block from the Fulton Fish Market. As a child I was fascinated with very old people and would ask about what the world was like when they were young. I remember chatting with an old man on the train who told me the Brooklyn of his childhood was one big potato field. I also loved talking to an old woman who lived in my building. She had been born into slavery. Her memories mostly came from her family, since she was a young child then. But it always made me think that if she also loved the stories of old people, she could have chatted with someone who was born before the Revolution!
Would love to see a video on Montreal!
This^
Na Montreals even considered a city
So glad this is the top comment... do Montreal please Daniel
no thank you
Or Quebec City! They have some insane streets!
A full tell-all on Robert Moses in your style of video would be really enjoyable.
check out 99% Invisible, they got that podcast already
That would take ten hours!!!
Yes! His fingerprints are all over Brooklyn. Also, Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza, as well as Green-Wood (once the popular tourist destination in the City) can easily be an entire episode.
The Power Broker, the book mentioned in the video, tells all about him. So many people of my parents' generation despised that man.
Gravesend, Brooklyn native here. Believe me, a vast majority of the people/families who have lived here for 40-70+ years know the history of the area and its significance. Great video.
Cheers from Yellow Hook, er, Bay Ridge.
Always good to work in a dig at Robert Moses.
Robert Moses had a huge impact on our city, so it is fair to "work in a dig" about him.
@atOmly
I grew up in God's Country (Brooklyn to those who don't know it) and well remember the anger everyone directed at Walter O'Malley for moving the Dodgers to Los Angeles. My dad (former semi-boxer from Puerto Rico) took a newspaper that had O'Malley's photo and punched it while saying that if he the opportunity, he'd smack that greedy so-and-so in the face for stealing our team. Indeed, everyone blamed him for this misfortune. However, revisionist historian now claim (and have proven) that it was Moses who was responsible for taking away the Dodgers. On top of being a racist m**********r he caused the loss of our team! May he rot in you-know-where!
I was born in SUNSET PARK and loved the reason it was called that .
What a view !!
Thanks a lot! I’m from East New York born and raised. Grew up on Cozine Ave and the bus I took B6 was on the corner of cozine and Van Siclen (for some reason the K is gone). It took me years to figure out Brooklyn. I was about 25 when it all came together. And you pretty much nailed it. I grew up waking down New Lots Ave all my life. There’s an old Dutch church still there. I went to Canarsie high. I played baseball on Flatlands avenue on what was farmland for regular people at some point but also for the Sunnydale food company. The old farm was so big it was turned into 5 baseball fields which we called “5 Diamonds. The little league was called The Latin Souls. Obviously I can be up here for days about this. You’re the first person I can think of who came at this the right way. One thing I found out was why one high school was called Eastern District. Had something to do I think with Williamsburg being a city and that was the eastern part of the city. I also use to notice in my hood on Pennsylvania Ave a building had “26th ward” etched on it. Something you don’t hear of much in Brooklyn politics. It took a long time to find out the origin of that one. Once again great work. On and East New York was named by Col John Pitkin(Ave) whom erroneously thought by adding “East” to New York people would assume it meant Manhattan he was off…..waaaaaay off. 😂😂😂😂
I was born at Bay Ridge Hospital (now gone). My grandfather moved his family from Manhattan to Brooklyn when he bought a small apartment building there in the 1920s. This video gave me some perspective on Brooklyn as a whole and was a joy to watch. Thank you so much.
As a Brooklynite for 44 years, I enjoyed this video so much, had to watch it twice.
I live within walking distance of the the oldest house in New York State.
Thank you so much for that information.
I feel like this guy's entire vibe is the embodiment of Brooklyn 😂 Great video!
I’m so so glad I’ve discovered your channel. I’m enjoying every minute of it.
Being a born-and-bred New Yorker, I LOVE this kind of history! I remember learning about the Dutch settlement of New Netherland when I was in third grade. One of my favorite books at the time was about two NYC kids who get on the downtown subway in the present day (1965) and end up getting off in Dutch New Amsterdam. I was very surprised as I got older when I discovered that most people outside of New York had never heard of characters like Peter Stuyvesant, Hendrick Hudson, or Adrian van der Donk. To me, it was akin to not knowing anything about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln!
Born and Bread baby!!!
I was talking to some Dutch people at a pension hotel in Kyoto a couple weeks ago. I said I lived in New York City (Brooklyn specifically). One said "you mean New Amsterdam."
It's local history. People from Massachusetts would wonder why you knew so little about the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, people in Virginia would expect you to know about Jamestown, people from Florida would think you knew all about De Soto's expedition. But like you, I'm from NY, and we weren't taught very much about any of those things.
@@emjayay Those people are not very smart if they don't know that New Amsterdam is now New York!!! The Dutch lost the city to the English, no matter what those people call it.
The Dutch lost New Amsterdam to the English, *PEACEFULLY* , by possibly ¿war-wearied? peglegged Peter Stuyvesant (the equivalent of George Washington for New York).
When I moved to US, I lived on Neck Road and East 7 Street in Brooklyn. And I immediately felt how the whole neighborhood had this historical spirit. Especially if you cross Ocean Parkway and walk down towards McDonald Ave. I'm glad that my new US journey started from NYC. 🇺🇲
this channel will get to a million subs in no time. Quality, informative and well research videos.
I've enjoyed your work before, but as a son of Brooklyn this video got me to subscribe. Good work.
Yesss. Trying to win people over one city at a time haha
Great vid! Another interesting one could be the development of various Chinatowns in NYC (Chinatown, Flushing, Sunset Park, etc)... you'll get food along the way too.
More, more, more. This video is terrific. It has certainly whet my appetite for additional content about all 5 boroughs.
As a native Brooklynite, this was amazing. Would be nice to expand a bit on Bushwick. Sooo much history (still unfolding) there!
Please cover the other three boroughs!
We need QUEENS!!
I'm from the Caribbean but moved here as a kid and love Brooklyn, can't picture myself living anywhere else in the world. The people and the culture is beautiful to be apart of, I loved the history lesson ❤️
you have to go back. our nation is for our people not for foreigners to invade and occupy.
You inspired to do my master's thesis on a procedural city generator that takes into account terrain and history! Thank you so much for the video
No way. That’s awesome
Non-Native New Yorker : I was Born in Kenya🇰🇪 - But grew up in the suburbs of Delaware. (2 hours south of NYC) I Moved to Brooklyn two years ago (Flatbush). And I can’t explain to people enough how much I love this city. Specifically Brooklyn. I got rid of my car when I moved here and I spend most of my time exploring BK with my bike 🚲 it marvels me how rich the culture here is in everything from the people to the cuisine to the architecture etc. so far my favorite little hidden corner of the city is this secluded run down part of prospect park (Vale of Cashmere) - it’s a large sunken garden with a pond that’s overgrown , the images of what it once looked like online are gorgeous but the blend of nature taking back what man once tamed is beautiful. Also not many people know it’s down there. Just Thought I’d share.
Also that blue & white map of BK in the beginning of the video is 👌🏾 where can I find it ?
Thanks for that tip, moving to prospect Lefferts in April 1 Block from the park! Cannot wait! 🙏🏼
@@evelynjulia6787 Be careful - Lefferts is a bit of a high crime area.
As a (non-native) Brooklynite, I really loved this video. I think it would have been fun to go over the consolidation of Brooklyn itself (which predates the consolidation of NYC) as well!
Your videos are so fascinating and visually great!
Never expected to see my old college professor on a TH-cam video. Fran Ledon is amazing!
My family was an early
immigrant NYC family… and I have a few family stories and quips. I had a great great great aunt who was beloved by my grandmother.. she was spring cleaning her apartment on Prince St in SoHo, tripped over the sill while opening her large counterweighted window, and fell to hear death on the sidewalk. Now every time I walk it I wonder which designer store or cafe it happened in front of… though back then the area was largely industrial revolution factories and immigrant tenants. My grandmother was born in Brooklyn and her grandparents on both sides had lived in a townhouse they built… decades later when they were in old age, the city seized the entire neighborhood via eminent domain under Robert Moses… gave them scraps for it.. and dozed it to build one of the first “projects” and a park in Crown Heights.
I think a really cool spin-off to this series would be explaining New Haven, CT's map.
It's much smaller than the cities you typically cover, but the entire place is BRIMMING with history and culture. Everything from Yale's influence to the city's strategic location on a natural harbor, nestled between two giant free-standing rocks that acted as sentry towers for the British and later, American rebels. Then there's the famous Wooster Street/Little Italy full of our beloved apizza spots. Another interesting note is that New Haven is surrounded by 3 other "Havens", West Haven, East Haven, and North Haven. All of which are separate municipalities that essentially behave as one much larger city. New Haven is also very close to New York City, and it shares quite a bit of history.
New Haven is just a super under rated New England/Tristate/East Coast city, purely because it's not a big city on its own. However New Haven County has nearly 900,000 people, the vast majority of which are less than a 25 minute drive into downtown New Haven.
If you are in New York, I'd highly suggest taking the Metro North line from Grand Central into New Haven one weekend. You can easily spend an entire day trying the amazing pizza, checking out Yale's awesome free museums, walking around Yale/Downtown, and enjoying the beautiful architecture and micro-bustle of the city. It's one of my favorite cities in the New York Tri-state, and it's super easy to get to. They also have some decent beaches compared to NYC in Stratford, Fairfield, Milford. If you've never been, and you do go one day, you can really see why super rich wall street bros buy up the property in southern CT.
This is a great channel. My 25 yr old son, a History Geek, like me, turned me on to it. Thank you.
Great video revealing a lot of the enormous history of NYC and Brooklyn. What I always find amazing is how the city lives over and with its previous history. This can be understood by reading some of our greatest authors and how they incorporate the city’s older landscapes into their works. For example; Henry Miller describing Bushwick and its trolly tracks along Myrtle avenue, or Hubert Selby describing the docks of Red Hook or Betty Smith’s Williamsburg as described in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Your video images of modern day Gravesend with its auto shops and trains surrounding a 17th century house and cemetery are so fascinating in that regard.
Fantastic video history. Old guy born and bred New Yorker. Grew up in Brighton Beach Brooklyn. Lived in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. ( never ventured to SI). Great work. Hoping for more.
My brain can’t handle any more politics, this is so soothing and I’m hooked. Thank you!
Listen to a Zac poonen sermon....real talk
Yes!!!!!
Totally agree
Driven here by the same demons.
Brooklyn is such a great city as I always recalled when driving back into Brooklyn over the Brooklyn bridge during the early 80's the "Welcome to Brooklyn The 7th largest city in America" sign. My wonderful memories of Brooklyn are etched in my mind till death.
Native Brooklynite here - born & raised in the Gravesend Projects (1960's) in Coney Island🎡🎢🎠🙌 (ironically not in the Gravesend neighborhood) And I still live in Brooklyn! (Fort Greene)🌉🌟
I'm always fascinated by the history of Brooklyn.
It's a lot of ground to cover, so I'm looking forward to more of these videos. Thank u❤️
Currently watching from Park Slope, Brooklyn. Incredible video!
wow im like 7ish miles away from u
@@rslashontario ditto
Born at Methodist Hospital and raised on the corner of 1st & 7th ave above the laundromatte from the 70's. Such a great neighborhood.
At school in Albany rn but am from Park Slope, can't believe that a neighborhood I passed every day on the F train had that much history!
I also live in Park Slope!
I am a native NYC person. I love that you are interested in its history. Not trying to sound like this city is the best, especially these days, but, the planning and design of it is really complex, arbitrary and interesting. A lot of that is also disappering, by the way. So many historical things I loved going up are getting destroyed or getting chased by corporate interests.
I'd love to see a video (or more like multiple videos) on Robert Moses' impacts on the city and the good and bad (mostly bad) that he did
Born and raised in Gravesend... very interesting watch!
Watching from Gravesend, lived here for all 26 years of my life! The cemetery where Deborah Moody is buried was actually a favorite spot of mine to smoke weed in high school. Gravesend is a pretty quiet neighborhood, but the cemetery is the MOST peaceful place in a 30 minute radius (other than the beach at Coney Island in the middle of the night at winter).
Watching from Gravesend Neck here.
Brooklyn has the most peaceful places to relax and it be a minimum amount of disturbance. Especially 10 years ago. But, even that all has changed a bit, with everyone fleeting to my city of Brooklyn 😢. That being said, Kings county is still one of the MOST romantic boros of all NYC boros. 😊
How sad that you would ruin the peaceful history of the cemetery by smoking weed. I'm sure you ruined it for many visitors who also wanted peace and beauty.
@@cathynewyork7918 Considering the cemetery is locked behind a gate, I doubt there are many visitors looking for peace and quiet there. I would hop the fence and find the most isolated corner blocked by trees to smoke. Peaceful NYC places to me are anywhere I can't see or hear people and cars. The smell of weed is omnipresent in NY at this point, it didn't bother me before I started smoking and it doesn't bother me now that I've stopped.
@@Korvisio I live in New York City, and the constant smell of weed does bother me. I find it offensive that you would trespass in the cemetery to smoke weed. Disrespectful.
When are you coming to Philly Daniel?? The Philadelphia street grid was the first in the United States, not to mention it was also the capital before DC!
Before the 19th century it was also the largest city in the nation and it still has the densest downtown outside of Midtown Manhattan
@@PatcoStreetMan Center City and the Loop are pretty close to each other in terms of density. Amazing for Philly, because that's much bigger than the Loop, 7.7 sq mi to 1.58 sq mi. So to maintain a similar density at close to 4.9x the size
NYC was the capital before Philly
@@mkhanman12345 You could make a case for that but you could also say that Philly served as the de-facto capital of the US during the 1st and 2nd continental congress in 1776 and later under the Articles of Confederation from 1790 to 1800. New York was only the capital from 1785 to 1790.
Seconding this.
I would absolutely love to see a video on Los Angeles, I am a native Southern California and that would be amazing if you made a video on LA
If he does a LA video he needs to read the book, The Ecology of Fear. LA had such an interesting history to it.
@11:07, the square town shape has a name in French, it's a "Trait-carré" a defensive way to make a colony. We still have ..2 (if I recall) of those design in Quebec City.
Yes! Go to Quebec City next!
Would be interested to see you cover Toronto. I was amazed by the underground tunnel network to avoid the winter weather
My family has been in Brooklyn for at least 200 years so this is interesting to see.
Randomly got the video recommended and didnt really know what to expect here but that was super interesting! I grew up in Brooklyn in Bensonhurst and knew a little bit of the history about the original Dutch settlers, but it was especially very interesting to learn about the Gravesend neighborhood since I lived so close to it. I passed by that area every day going to school and never realized why the streets were like that. Its cool how so much of the original Dutch naming was preserved too with road names like New Utrecht Ave and bunch of other roads.
Note: Bensonhurst is adjacent to Gravesend, to its west but going farther north. The exact borders of these neighborhoods differ from one source to another.
This is outstanding ! Thankyou for explaining the 4 squared block neighborhood in Gravesend . I have always noticed that oddity when looking at maps of NYC, especially with its Village Road North and Village Road South streets integrated into it. I never knew why that existed that way until today ! Thanks !!
I love these kind of videos. I hope you get to do the rest of the boroughs.
Took me back to the serenity of Kings Highway-McDonald Ave Culver (F) line. The views of the Verrazano to the West & Manhattan/Downtown Brooklyn skyscrapers to the North. Appreciate the video.
Historic sources, written in Dutch, suggest that it was named by the Dutch governor general Willem Kieft for the Dutch settlement of 's'Gravesande (now 's-Gravenzande) in the Netherlands, which means "Count's Beach" or "Count's Sand".
Sounds plausible actually
I just know you would have a blast explainig CDMX’s map
Love this video!
As a Dutch person we even brush past New York/new Amsterdam history.
The Dutch had New Amsterdam for just over 40 years, then ceding it to Britain. They imported slaves from the beginning to build the city for centuries to follow. I truly believe the New Yorker attitude "to each their own" has its roots from the Dutch culture of acceptance.
Daniel, please cover the Flatbush parts that are 120 years old with detached houses and driveways. I was so surprised when biking through what felt like a very old suburb or Seattle's Capitol Hill.
Brooklyn still had many Dutch farms in Brooklyn after losing Manhattan to the English. The Brooklyn accent, where “the” is pronounced “da,” is I believe, a language remnant from the Dutch.
@@bluebox2000How do the Dutch have a "culture of acceptance" when they literally enslaved an entire race of human beings simply for being different and anti Blackness continues to be rampant among the Dutch to this day?🤨 Like lets not lie.
a lot of the dutch settlements in brooklyn are still called that but for some reason new utrecht is not called that. the avenue still has than name but that area is multiple neighborhoods. dyker heights, boro park, bensenhurst, etc
Once again great job. Kind of amazing that that initial grid still exists
Another great video, thank you Daniel !
I've never set foot in Northern America, so I wouldn't know which city to explain with historical maps, but I would venture that any city founded along some shores would be interesting to investigate : from Washington DC or Baltimore, to Detroit or Chicago.
If you want some European suggestion, try Lyon in France !
And, as i told you before, if you happen to come back to Vietnam, I'll guide you through Saigon/Cholon for the most in-depth visit you can imagine !
Be well, and keep up the amazing work !
These are my favorite videos on youtube i watch all of your videos on repeat over and over again because they’re super interesting
Wonderful video! Thank you for speaking with so many great experts!
Selfishly as a Columbia University alum, I’d be interested in you tracing its history in the city, from Alexander Hamilton in Kings College to the controversial expansion into Manhattanville.
Madison Wisconsin's grid and history is very interesting.
Another great video! I love learning how cities evolved and come to be. Sometimes street layouts seem odd till you realize the past features or other factors.
Great work, as always! Maybe something on Chinatown & Flushing (etc.) - the history & timeline (in general and in relation to events elsewhere - e.g., the railroads, etc.)?
Fabulous beginning to what will undoubtedly be an undertaking that will keep you busy looking at the other 3 boroughs as well. Kudos!
What people sometimes forget about these cities or towns are actually on Long Island.
I learned a lot and truly love your acknowledgment of this video not being totally comprehensive. So many people want to know everything in 60 seconds, appreciate the great longer-than-a-minute format content!
Thank-you. Fascinating. I'm a Canadian and my NYC touchstone is College Pointe. Our church moved a mother and her two little children from Montreal to College Pointe in the early nineties. We went down in two passenger vans. My wife and I stayed overnight in Fort Lee, N.J just across the Geo. Washington Bridge. I remember looking out our room's window overlooking across the Hudson to Manhattan and feeling how visually overpowering Manhattan appeared in that night fog. So whenever there is talk about NYC, I'm always scouring over College Pointe to see if some memories come back. I actually did a small oil 11x14 oil painting of Geo. Wash. Bridge, the experience was so overpowering/impressionable. I don't know if College Pointe is actually in Brooklyn or Queens. Thanks again.
Formal request for a Denver video! Phil Goodstein's book "Denver Streets" is a great starting point. Absolutely love your videos!
So not only that Dutch house but there are other "monuments" throughout Brooklyn that bring back to its past history. Perhaps a video of Brooklyn historical homes, roads that go back before the Dutch where here, grave stones ect. (Prospect park has has structures and monuments that pre date the joint of kings and queens counties and a pilgrim cemetery)
Would love an episode on cleveland. such a dynamic city with a ton of history.
Thank you! Brooklyn native and I love videos like this!
4 minutes in and I have already run to Google 3 times! I would watch this type of content ALL DAY if I could!
I used to live on Lenox Road, in Flatbush, and there was a house across the street (and across Nostrand Avenue) where they grew corn in the front yard. Now that plot is a 15-story apartment tower.
BTW, @DanielismsSteiner, while I lived in Brooklyn for a decade and a half and still love the place and would love to see more about it, I'm especially interested in The Bronx and how, to me at least, it seems like the most European part of the city in terms of its street design (mainly the West Bronx; the East Bronx, less so). The topography led to a lot of necessary decisions that make the streets less boring than a perfect grid, such as step streets and curving ones. It's a borough with so much potential that's left unrealized by a lack of government investment and, unfortunately, a significant population who sees their time there as temporary while they try to make money to fund an escape back to their homeland (rather than investing in the place where they are, now).
Your videos are such high-quality!
Love the genuine geeking out at the archives.
I love my city! I’m so glad I was born and raised in NYC!
Great episode! You should consider making an episode on Indy. The circle city has a unique grid pattern and was the first major city-county consolidation after NYC.
i love your videos and want to see if i can make a suggestion: i think itd be really cool if you can add animations of zooming from macro to micro then to street view. for example, about the cemetery, it would be cool to show the old map, then overlay modern map like google, then zoom in with google earth or something into google street view, then cut to your footage of the actual place. i just found it a little hard to follow which side of the cemetery or which house we are looking at and where they are on the map. I hope it makes sense! Love your channel and hope you do taipei one day!
your hair looks so good daniel literally goals
So well done, well produced and edited.
Small fun fact: I was looking at the Google Map while watching, and as you know, not every firm and industry pops up just when browsing. One that did pop up in Brooklyn Navy Yard, is Steiner Studios. Funny because of your surname! I guess you're not affiliated with them (the viewership would probably be higher), but it was fun to connect those dots from Europe.
Love this! Do Baltimore next!
Lovely video and congrats on reaching 196k subscribers
I was obsessed with your Manhattan video, used to understand the layout when I traveled to the city. Now imma be obsessed with this video
Always have been fascinated by Brooklyn since I was young. Would be interesting to see more information about Gravesend.
Watched your "Seattle's Map, Explained" video cause i live in the Seattle area, now I'm hooked lol.
I love how many old historical things are just hiding in plain sight in NYC, it's hard to remember how old it is sometimes
I'm biased because I'm from there but would love to see a San Fransisco's Map Explained video!
If you wanted to go back to the UK, you could make a video on Bath and Bristol. Both have extensive history in infrastructure, culture and architecture. Outside, i would like to hear more on European cities in Holland, Germany and especially Italy with its reputation for finding roman remains constantly when building infrastructure.
Bath's would probably be about 5 minutes long lol
I would LOVE a Bristol episode. it's such an odd duck of a city
As an inhabitant of Milan, Italy, a city that is not really known for its Roman foundation, I can confirm that our last underground line was postponed by some years because of founding Roman sites, especially in the city centre
Amsterdam has a pretty cool geography history. There are probably already quite some videos about that though, and more may be coming up now they've just kicked off its 750 y anniversary festivities.
Cheers to another NYC-related videos! 🥂
Amazing ! I have loved to listen to you explanations about the birth of NYC and the history of others citys around the US, and I'll keep going to watch your videos from France : )
Phenomenal video as always Daniel! Gravesend is truly a quirk within the city!
NEEDED THIS SOOOOO MUCH!!!!! Would love the other burrows too!!!
I'm a lifelong native Brooklynite (61 years) living in Bushwick, and this neighborhood alone has a fascinating history that I would love to see told in a video like this.
Love it man! Pittsburgh next?
Incredible! Great work. Curious what those NYC history books are sitting on the table 👀
Awesome video. So much detail and work put into this!
Why doesn’t this channel have more views? This is some of the best content I’ve ever seen on YT
As a Brooklyn native still living here I was still amazed to find out something I didn't already know. When you went to Gravesend I didn't expect you would find anything interesting there but you did. Now I have to take a little trip down there on my bike so I can see for myself. I've been through there plenty of times but never noticed anything about it, it was just the neighborhood the F train bisected. I see you also have a video on Seattle. I'll have to take a look as that's the only other place I've lived, for a few years back in the 80s.
This is awesome!! Please do Queens!!
Awesome video! I did a research project on the transit systems, the bridges, and the lead up to Consolidation in preparation for my history seminar and to honor my grandfather’s Brooklynite heritage! I’d love to see a video or a series on San Francisco and some of the Bay Area cities like Oakland, Berkeley, Sausalito, etc.