It's interesting how borders change over time. When national borders do so it's usually big news. In other cases it might be forgotten.
Not universally forgotten but not known by everyone: Until 1898, New York City was officially only Manhattan. It was in 1898 that it unified with the then-independent towns of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. So Brooklyn wasn't part of NYC when Walt Whitman was growing up there.
Even stranger: Flatbush was another town, which had been a farming community for most of its existence. Brooklyn only annexed it in 1898. Which means that if you were a twelve-year-old living in Flatbush in 1900, you could have lived in three different cities while all the time remaining in one house. That had to be weird.
2 comments:
I used to tell people that originally we lived 25 miles from the city, then 15, then 10, and now my old home is part of Metro Toronto although the lake never moved.
The story about Manhattan is much more interesting since it's one of the most populous and important cities in the world. Having a city be under the jurisdiction of a central authority does make sense - as his description of LA today goes to prove. It was a fascinating article to read.
The event I remember in Canada was when the government of Quebec resolved "to make French the language of Government and the Law, as well as the normal and everyday language of work, instruction, communication, commerce and business".. At the time Montreal was the biggest and most prosperous city in Canada - until all the US businesses packed up and moved to Toronto. Actions have consequences.
Anyhow, when you mentioned Flatbush I immediately thought of Tina Turner's song Nutbush City Limits - a city in Tennessee that probably hasn't changed that much.. Flatbush, however, has changed a lot.
https://youtu.be/zc-EHachhRE?si=-QAlVDyd3I3mdF8c
Of course being part of the metro area is not quite the same as being in the city itself. Still, when I first started visiting Oak Ridges was its own town rather than part of Richmond Hill. And Richmond Hill is pretty big itself, having a six figure population and--news to me--Canada's largest telescope.
If LA ever consolidated its metro area the way New York did in the 1890s it would be physically massive. Not likely to happen, though. Or at least if it hasn't already the inertia is pretty powerful.
What Quebec wants--or at least what a large and influential contingent want--is to end confederation with Canada and become an independent French-speaking nation. And there's a chance they might have already done so if they were on the west coast or the east coast. Being in the middle they'd be faced with the possibility of the whole thing falling apart and the US starting to annex former provinces.
Nutbush, Tennessee remains tiny, only about 300 people. This is kind of impressive given the publicity value of its musical heritage. Tina and Sleepy John Estes were both from there.
Fun song.
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