Growing New-York

Union of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh with New-York.

…Who does not see that the larger New-York becomes and the more it spreads over the surrounding country (though it take the whole western shore of Long Island a mile in width from Flushing Bay to Coney Island, as it probably will before the close of the century,) the higher must and will be the value of lots on this island, particularly the northern outskirts of the well-built portion of this city. Is the inclusion of the Long Island suburbs in the same municipality with the original City of New-York to have the effect of altering the center of metropolitan population or diverting the course of fashion and self-styled aristocracy from its tendency northward on the island…?

--New York Daily Tribune, Wednesday, November 6, 1850

I've been remiss in hyphenating "New-York Daily Tribune," as they spelled it back in the 1850s!

I'm not sure if I posted on Brooklyn becoming a borough of New York City? Didn't happen until 1898 (so this article guessed right about Coney Island becoming part of New York by the end of the century...but only barely).