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1947 Map of Brooklyn

Name: 1947 Topographic Map of Brooklyn
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1947
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1947

About this map

Ebbets Field stands as a focal point in this 1940s urban survey, capturing the borough at a peak of industrial and residential density. The landscape is defined by its massive infrastructure, from the Navy Yard on Wallabout Bay to the intricate network of the New Lots Classification Yards and the Penn Tunnels. Extensive cemeteries such as Calvary Cemetery, Mount Zion Cemetery, and Holy Cross Cemetery create large green islands within the gridded streets of Ridgewood, Maspeth, and Canarsie.

Academic and civic life is anchored by landmarks like Brooklyn Tech HS and Erasmus Hall HS, while the borough's connections to Manhattan are solidified by the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge. The map details a transition from the heavy industrial activity along Newtown Creek and English Kills to the open marshes near Jamaica Bay at Paerdegat Basin, documenting a world of streetcars, freight yards, and traditional neighborhoods before the era of major highway expansion.