Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Brooklyn

Far northern suburb on the Hawkesbury River. The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales has accepted that Brooklyn was so named because the Union Bridge Company of New York, built both the New York Brooklyn Bridge and the first railway bridge across the Hawkesbury River. However the bridge in New York was built by a different company, the 'New York Bridge Company' and the area was called Brooklyn by at least 1883 when the land was subdivided and sold, well in advance of the construction of the planned bridge. Many historians believe it more likely that the area was named Brooklyn after the borough in New York because of its proximity to Long Island in the Hawkesbury River.

-33.535129140123, 151.23839634496

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Alternate
Bywater
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Brooklyn

CC BY-SA 2.0
,
2008

Brooklyn was settled by the 1830s though it remained remote until the railway bridge was built in 1885-89. In the twentieth century, Brooklyn was a fishing and tourist town.