Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What year was Brooklyn incorporated into NYC?

Answer: 1898

Brooklyn was the only borough that had doubts about joining NYC, and had several conditions that had to be met, if Brooklyn was to become a willing part of NYC.

2. What famous family was involved in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge?

Answer: The Roeblings

John Roebling, a German immigrant who had already built several bridges, designed the bridge. He died before the bridge was finished. His son took over his job as the force behind the bridge, only to be crippled by the bends, while supervising the work on one of the bridge's towers. His wife, Emily, became his voice at the construction site, as he lay in bed, recovering from the bends.

3. What neighborhood saw rioting after a West Indian child was struck and killed by a Chasidic driver, following the Rebbe's motorcade in 1991?

Answer: Crown Heights

The rioting went on for several days, and resulted in the mob killing of a Chasidic scholar from Australia.

4. Where is the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch Library?

Answer: Grand Army Plaza

Brooklyn maintains its own, separate, Public library system. Even so, Brooklynites are permitted to be card holders from the NY Public Library system, and borrow materials from any NY Public lending library.

5. How many suspension bridges span the East River to Brooklyn?

Answer: 3

There are ten bridges that exist on the East River of which six are suspension. The Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg all cross to Brooklyn. The Triborough Bridge connects New York and Queens, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and the Throggs Neck Bridge connect The Bronx and Queens. The other four are not suspension bridges.

6. What island is Brooklyn located on?

Answer: Long Island

While physically located on Long Island, Brooklyn is not considered part of the entity known as "Long Island". Interestingly enough, the Brooklyn History Museum was called the "Long Island Historical Society" up until the 1980's.

7. What is the name of the historic African American neighborhood located in what is now Bedford Stuyvesant?

Answer: Weeksville

There is now a museum to memorialize the Weeksville community, and a public school named for Weeksville.

8. What neighborhood contains a thriving Latin American community, as well as Brooklyn's largest Chinatown?

Answer: Sunset Park

While Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park has shops where Spanish is usually the dominant language, Eighth Avenue has become Brooklyn's answer to Chinatown.

9. What two green spaces dominate the center of Brooklyn?

Answer: Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery

Prospect Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, the same team who designed Manhattan's Central Park. Olmstead was noted for saying he thought Prospect Park was his masterpiece!

10. Although we Brooklynites lost our beloved Dodgers in the 1950s, we now have a minor league team that draws huge crowds of loyal fans. What is the name of this team?

Answer: The Cyclones

The Cyclones play in Coney Island, and are named for the huge roller coaster there. It is amazing, though, how many Brooklynites still mourn the loss of the Dodgers, even people who were not even born when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn - myself included!