The Bowry Boys episode 75, Williamsburg, with an 8-chate, it's the Bowry Boys!

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Hello, welcome to the Bowry Boys.

My name is Greg Young with a mini-episode for you.

Today I'm looking at one of Brooklyn's most populated and diverse neighborhoods, Williamsburg.

Believe it or not, there was a time between the years 1852 and 1855,

where the area we know and love as New York City today was actually comprised of a few small villages and towns and three actual cities.

The City of New York in Manhattan, the City of Brooklyn, which was centered around Brooklyn Heights and the Fulton Ferry area,

and the City of Williamsburg.

That's Williamsburg with an H at the end, incidentally like Pittsburgh.

Today's Williamsburg, without that H in its name, is a neighborhood with multiple personalities, a trendy home for artists and hipsters since the 1990s,

a tight-lit orthodox Jewish community, and of course a big Hispanic neighborhood as well.

So how did it get its act together back in the 1850s to actually briefly rival the City of Brooklyn?

What happened to the neighborhood when the Williamsburg Bridge was finally built?

And why did the spelling of the neighborhood change and where can you still find that mysterious letter H today?

Now, situating Williamsburg is a little bit of a challenge unless you have a map in front of you, but I'll do the best that I can here.

Williamsburg is one of Brooklyn's most northern neighborhoods, sitting on the other side of the East River from Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Unlike many places in Brooklyn, it's not a unified part.

Now, they're culturally or physically. It's cleaved both by the Williamsburg Bridge and by the Brooklyn Queen's Expressway.

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