New York, Brooklyn, Williamsburg

Bird's eye view of the City of New York. Brooklyn. Williamsburg. In the foreground is the Navy Yard, in Brooklyn. Williamsburg and Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) are on the right. Illustration by John Bachmann. Published by Charles Magnus & Co. 1859. On the right, enlargement of the Union Square and environs.

John Bachmann (1814–1896) was a German-speaking Swiss artist and lithographer. His first known print in the United States appeared in 1849, a view from an imagined point above Union Square in New York, looking south toward the Battery.

The consolidation of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island took effect in 1898, before that the cities of New York and Brooklyn were competing for commerce.