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1900 Map of Brooklyn

Name: 1900 Topographic Map of Brooklyn
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1908
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1908

About this map

Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park anchor a landscape in transition as the urban grid of Brooklyn expands eastward toward the salt marshes of Grassy Bay. This late nineteenth-century documentation captures the densifying settlements of New Utrecht, Gravesend, and Flatlands before they were fully subsumed by the twentieth-century metropolis. The Long Island Railroad and the New York and Rockaway Beach Railroad provide the skeletal structure for this growth, cutting through established communities like Winfield Junction and Woodhaven.

Further south, the intricate geography of Jamaica Bay is revealed in fine detail, showing a network of tidal channels and islands including Canarsie Pol and Barren Island. Points of maritime access like Canarsie Landing and Remsen Landing suggest the era's recreational and industrial reliance on the waterfront. Massive memorial grounds, including Cypress Hills Cemetery and Mt Olivet Cemetery, mark the border between the growing city and the largely undeveloped wetlands to the east.