Urban development doesn’t always occur in the same way and at the same exact time. Factors such as topography and population growth can greatly affect or influence the development of land. Such is the case for the lands we now call Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Before any development or planning began, European settlers weren’t exactly too concerned with how and where they settled down. The Dutch were the first to set foot in Early Manhattan and it was only until the British claimed the land that any development began. The only thing guiding them was the memory of street layouts like those from the city of London. The need for a better layout and more land to settle on was met when many more settlers began to arrive at a progressive rate. At this moment the state appointed three commissioners to plan Manhattan’s development. A man named John Randal Jr, was hired to draft the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan. It can be said that the layout of Early Manhattan was strict in the sense that any home or other building that stood in the way of a proposed road would be taken out in order to keep the land in accordance to the grid they had adapted.

Even though Brooklyn wasn’t located too far from Manhattan, the rate at which Manhattan’s urban growth took place and the amount of planning that went into developing it was completely different than what happened when Brooklyn’s development occurred. Not only did Brooklyn develop after Manhattan, it also didn’t receive any master plan. When Brooklyn was being developed the goal only seemed to be to fix any heavy congestion of roads, while working around any already built structures. This, added to the fact that Brooklyn’s typography consisted of several hills prevented the same strict development that took place in Manhattan from occurring in Brooklyn.

Everyone wanted to be in Manhattan, where all the commerce was happening and due to that Early Manhattan’s development occurred because more space/ land to provide for their growing population was needed. This resulted in narrow lots to provide those space and organized streets. Brooklyn, at a distance from Manhattan and all the commercial action, never saw that same need. Brooklyn was treated as an area to vacation/relax on or watch the action in Manhattan at a distance and that is reflected on it’s grid.