A Weekly Column of Trivia and Observations

By David Ansel Weiss
(cumb3@aol.com)

No matter how hard the English tried when they took over New Amsterdam in the 17th century, they could not establish the name of “Brookland� for Brooklyn. Whatever they did, people continued to call it Breukelen, which eventually evolved into Brooklyn.

If anyone asks you who the leading actor was in the film “The Jackie Robinson Story,� you can answer with a smile — Jackie Robinson.

When Robert Fulton launched his ferry boat service in 1814 using steam power for the first time, the average trip across the East River took about 15 minutes, but, believe it or not, under certain conditions when the tides and the weather were favorable, that time could be reduced to five minutes!

It was a Brooklyn oil refiner named Abraham Gesner who in 1854 not only invented kerosene but also the name itself, which he spelled with a capital “K.� — i.e. Kerosene.

If you were a member of the Democratic party in the 19th century you would probably have had no trouble getting a job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, since Hugh McLaughlin, Brooklyn’s No. 1 Democratic political boss, seemed to be able to hand them out at will. Commented one observer, “The Navy Yard was the Snug Harbor for the party faithful.�

In her book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, author Betty Smith explained why she chose the ailanthus tree as her tree, saying it was so hardy it was able among other things to grow in concrete.

In case you would like to know, the construction of the Verrazano Bridge started off with holes being dug into the foundation of the old Fort Lafayette, sister fort to Fort Hamilton, which during the Civil War was used as a prison camp for captured Confederate officers.

The long-gone Midwood Theater in Flatbush had an unusual method for determining the price of admission tickets. On the particular year a movie patron went to the theater, the last two numbers of the admission price would be the last two numbers of the year. Thus, if the year was 1933, the ticket price would be $1.33.

By the year 1684 there was no more land in Brooklyn that belonged to the Native Americans.

Yes. It’s true. Around the turn of the last century the Brooklyn Dodgers were controlled by the Baltimore Orioles. Seems in those days there were no restrictions on major-league baseball owners investing in teams in other cities. So Harry van Der Horst and his manager Ned Hanlon acquired the controlling interest in the Dodgers until, finally, Charles Ebbets — who had been with the Dodgers from the very beginning — bought them out and returned them to local ownership.

Erasmus Hall Academy was started by the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in 1786 as a school for the children of wealthy Dutch farmers in Brooklyn, but it soon attracted students from not only different parts of the United States, but even from Europe.

Gabriel Furman, lawyer and amateur historian, surveyed Brooklyn and in 1822 came up with the following statistics: 493 dwelling places, 48 taverns, 48 groceries, 10 shoe and boot manufacturers, 12 car sheds, 26 storehouses, 92 stables, 6 bakeries, 7 confectioneries, 5 butcher shops, 5 tailor shops, 5 rope walks, 6 carpenter shops, and 1 windmill.

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