#brooklyn-history

#brooklyn-history

People have lived on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue almost as long as there has been an Atlantic Avenue. It started out as a path leading to early settler Ralph Patchen's farm and then became a road to the East River. Part of it became known as Division Street, as it was the informal border between the town of Brooklyn and South Brooklyn, which included today's Red Hook, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens neighborhoods.

The Battle of Brooklyn began just before midnight on August 26th, 1776. With a total of 50,000 soldiers, the Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island) was the first major battle during the Revolutionary War, and the largest until Yorktown in 1781, when the British surrendered. During this first battle of the war, the Americans, underprepared and outnumbered, suffered significant casualties, losing around 1,000 out of a total force of 18,000.

For loyal area residents, however, a restoration seemed to be a way to keep longtime residents on the neighborhood's narrow streets, and a new name was one of the first steps.