BROOKLYN IS LARGER, BOTH IN TERMS OF LAND AREA AND POPULATION, THAN MANHATTAN. The second most densely populated county in the United States (after Manhattan), Brooklyn had 2,621,793 residents to Manhattan’s 1,636,268 in 2014. Brooklyn has 71 square miles of land. Manhattan has 23. If it were its own city, Brooklyn would be the fourth largest in the United States.
BROOKLYN IS ON LONG ISLAND, BUT IS NOT CONSIDERED PART OF LONG ISLAND. If you grew up in the Northeast or were stellar at geography as a child, this might not be news to you. But many people across the country and world have heard of both Brooklyn and Long Island, yet are unaware that they share the same land mass. The Brooklyn History Museum was called the Long Island Historical Society until the 1980s.
21 ELEPHANTS ONCE CROSSED THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. After the bridge was built, city officials needed a way to show he general public that the bridge was safe, so they called P.T. Barnum and asked for help. On May 17, 1884, the famous circus founder paraded 21 elephants across the bridge proving its strength.