My group and I focused on Vinegar Hill during the period of 1870-1920. We wanted to learn how technological developments impacted Vinegar Hill as an improved neighborhood and community. Between 1870 to 1920, Brooklyn became more connected to Manhattan. The Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges were completed in 1883 and 1909, directly attaching Downtown Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan.

Not long after the bridges were opened, the first subway was opened in 1904. Many more subway routes were created providing thousands of people with easy and affordable transportation. In 1907 came the first affordable automobile. Cars and trollies then had become popular towards the 1920s.  These modes of transportation made access between the boroughs easier, as well as to and from Vinegar Hill.

The Robert Moses papers are organized not as a biography of his life. The papers are organized by the series of different projects and campaigns he participated in and benefited in throughout his life, as well as speeches and photographs. These include the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, Emergency Public Works Commission, and the Long Island State Park Commission, etc. Most of them overlap with each other, showing that he was involved with more than one thing at a time. These documents can be found in the Annex section of the New York Public Library Rare Books and Manuscript Division.