My group and I created hypotheses about Vinegar Hill during the 1870-1920. We focused predominantly on how technological developments impacted Vinegar Hill as a place. During the time period we were given, Brooklyn was becoming much more connected to the rest of New York City. The Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge were completed in 1883 and 1909. These bridges directly attached Downtown Brooklyn to Manhattan. The construction of these bridges impacted Vinegar Hill in a few ways. One way Vinegar Hill was affected was many of it’s streets and buildings were demolished to make room for the Manhattan Bridge.
Bridges were not the only way Vinegar Hill was becoming more attached to the rest of the city. In the 1904 the first subway was opened. Shortly after 1904, many more subway routes were created providing thousands of people with easy and affordable transportation. In addition, cars were becoming more commonplace towards the 1920s. All of these factors made it easier for people to come and go from Vinegar Hill. Before the bridges, subways, and cars, people would not travel very far distances. Because of that there was a sense of dependency on the shops and industries in Vinegar Hill. That dependency faded away when people were given more ways to access Manhattan.
Transportation infrastructure likely had a huge impact on Vinegar Hill area development and demographics. You might use information about transportation and knowledge of NYC consolidation as a starting point for a more pointed inquiry about the agencies involved in this development or oversight agencies that may have collected information. It is likely that some of the documentation about transportation projects and infrastructure changes is still in existence.