The history of Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton, two neighborhoods overlooking New York Bay, illustrates how innovations in transportation have reshaped Brooklyn and underlines the importance of preserving vital landmarks. Both Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton were transformed by the building of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, an experience that has inspired residents to develop a shared, positive vision of their area's future.

The colonial history of Bay Ridge began in 1652, when the Dutch West India Company acquired the land from the Nyack Indians. The Dutch settlers originally referred to the area, which was part of the town of New Utrecht, as Yellow Hook (and sometimes Yellow Ridge) for the color of the clay found there. But after the yellow-fever epidemic of 1848-49, residents chose to rename their community to evoke instead the beautiful surrounding bay and the glacial ridge that runs along what is now Ridge Boulevard.

Wealthy industrialists and businessmen were drawn to the area as a summer retreat and built mansions on the Bay Ridge bluffs. Two examples of these extraordinary homes remain. The Howard E. and Jessie Jones House, nicknamed the Gingerbread House by local residents, is a landmarked stone building with a pseudo-thatched roof on Narrows Avenue and 83rd Street. Built in 1916-17 in the Arts and Crafts style rarely seen in New York City, the house offers a glimpse of the fanciful summer cottages that filled Bay Ridge during those years. The second mansion that remains, the current home of the Fontbonne Academy, a private girls' school, is a relic of Bay Ridge's heyday as a summer rendezvous for members of high society. Local legend has it that this house was once purchased for the actress Lillian Russell by the high-living financier "Diamond Jim" Brady.

Bay Ridge has given new life to other unusual buildings of this early era. What is today Fort Hamilton High School, for example, was once the site of the Crescent Athletic Club, a posh retreat that brought together the richest Bay Ridge residents.

Perhaps the greatest challenge to residents' conception of their community was the building of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to Staten Island. Robert Moses, chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, pushed the project through over strong opposition by Bay Ridge residents, 8,000 of whom were displaced to make room for the bridge. Many claim that the Bay Ridge community's unsuccessful opposition to the construction fueled the activism that remains strong today. The results of this community involvement are impressive. Bay Ridge has preserved the 16-acre Leif Ericson Park, which is popular for soccer, and the 27-acre Owl's Head Park, a favorite picnic area that was once the estate of Brooklyn mayor and senator Henry C. Murphy. The 58-acre Shore Road Park --which connects Owl's Head Park at the northern end of Bay Ridge to the southernmost Fort Hamilton area--boasts a two-and-a-half mile winding path on which walkers, joggers, and roller-bladers enjoy breathtakingly clear views of the New York City harbor.

Today, Bay Ridge has its own motel, and its tree-lined streets are filled with one- and two-family homes. Unlike many other Brooklyn neighborhoods, these houses have garages, basements, and lawns, which make certain streets of Bay Ridge look like those in the outer suburbs. Ethnic diversity is a strength of the community. Generations of original Scandinavian and Italian residents have welcomed more recent Chinese, Russian, Greek, Korean, Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian immigrants. In the 1980s, Chinese entrepreneurs who had settled in nearby Sunset Park transformed some of Bay Ridge's abandoned warehouses into bustling garment factories. The most prevalent settlers in the 1990s have been newcomers from China and the former Soviet Union.

The ethnic foods served in 3rd and 5th Avenue restaurants and sold in specialty stores now represent the full diversity of the neighborhood's residents, and the shopping area from 4th to 6th Avenues is vibrant and diverse. One of the most famous stores in Bay Ridge is Kleinfeld's, which opened more than 55 years ago as a furrier named I. Kleinfeld and Son. Today's Kleinfeld's, the nucleus of Bay Ridge's retail wedding center, welcomes more than 18,000 brides through its doors each year, sells more than 8,000 wedding gowns annually, and offers a shuttle service to and from Manhattan.

One foot of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge rests in Fort Hamilton, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the second oldest continuously garrisoned federal post in the United States, although in 1997 it was severely reduced. The fort is named for Alexander Hamilton, who fought with the colonials in the Battle of Brooklyn, and is on the site of an early Dutch block house. Fort Lewis, an earlier fort on the same site, was made of earth and timber and helped repel the British during the War of 1812. Fort Hamilton itself was built between 1825 and 1831 as the first granite fort in New York harbor, and the building in the center of today's fort is landmarked, even though it was altered in 1937 and 1938 when it was converted to an officers' club. During the Civil War, volunteer regiments trained at the fort, and the water battery, Fort Lafayette, became a prison for high-ranking Confederate captives. Brooklynites in the area during this time could see ships lined up across the Narrows to help defend Fort Hamilton and other fortifications on Staten Island from Confederate raiders. Fort Hamilton also provided troops to help put down the draft riots of July 1863, when New Yorkers, resenting enforced conscription and a perceived threat to their jobs from black workers, tore up railroad tracks, burned hotels, and attacked blacks.

The building and armaments of Fort Hamilton kept pace with munitions technology. When rifled cannon made vertical-walled masonry obsolete, the fort was refitted with long-range guns hidden from view. These guns in turn were replaced, first with antiship artillery, then with anti-aircraft defenses as the threats to the safety of the harbor changed. The guns were removed altogether in 1954 when Nike missiles began a 20-year term of protecting New York City. But Fort Hamilton remained active. During both world wars, the base was used as a major embarkation and separation center. And more recently, in the mid-1990s, it was used as a recruiting command post and as the military entrance and processing station for New York City. The 26th Army Band is in residence there, and the Veteran's Administration Hospital serves the needs of veterans and families of military personnel from all over New York. Visitors to the fort will discover an extensive collection of military paraphernalia and old maps of the area in a small museum founded in 1980.

The civilian area named Fort Hamilton features more high-rise housing than does its neighbor, Bay Ridge, but it also includes one- and two-family homes. Many who live in the area consider themselves a part of Bay Ridge as well as of their own neighborhood, in a fitting testament to how both early and more recent residents have shared common assets and have united to preserve them.

© Yale University Press

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