Politics & Government Reviewed July 2026
Why New York City has five boroughs
On January 1, 1898, five separate places became one city. Brooklyn, then the fourth-largest city in the country, voted itself out of existence by 277 votes, and the government that merger created is still the one that runs New York.
The numbers that matter
- Date the five boroughs became one city
- January 1, 1898 (NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, NYC Timeline)
- Brooklyn's referendum margin
- 64,744 votes for consolidation, 64,467 against, a margin of 277 (NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, NYC Timeline)
- What New York City was before 1898
- Manhattan and part of what later became the Bronx (NYC Municipal Archives, 2021)
- How long the campaign took
- Nearly thirty years to persuade voters in the areas to be annexed (NYC Municipal Archives, 2021)
- Municipalities absorbed
- Six original towns in Brooklyn, a collection of towns on Staten Island, western Queens, and two rounds of Bronx annexation in 1873 and 1895 (City of New York, Consolidation Timeline)
The short answer
New York City has five boroughs because five separate places agreed, some of them barely, to stop being separate. The merger took effect on a single day.
On January 1, 1898, the separate jurisdictions of New York (Manhattan), Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island joined together to form a single metropolis: the City of Greater New York.
Before that morning, New York City meant something much smaller.
Prior to 1898, New York City consisted of only the Island of Manhattan and part of what later became the Borough of the Bronx.
Brooklyn was not a neighborhood of New York before the merger. It was the fourth-largest city in the United States, with its own mayor, its own newspapers, and its own reasons to say no. Queens and Staten Island were collections of towns and villages. What happened on January 1, 1898 was not a city growing outward but five governments agreeing to become one, which is why the boroughs still behave like the distinct places they were.
What each borough was before
The boroughs did not exist as units until the merger created them. Each one was assembled from something else.
The territory of today’s Brooklyn Borough was originally occupied by six different towns, one of which was named Brooklyn. The Town of Brooklyn kept growing throughout the 1800s, eventually becoming a city and annexing, one by one, all the other towns.
The territory of today’s Bronx Borough was annexed by New York City in two stages before the consolidation of 1898. It originally consisted of a handful of towns in Lower Westchester County. The towns west of the Bronx River were annexed in 1873; the towns east of the river were annexed in 1895.
At the time of the consolidation Staten Island was a collection of separate towns. Taken together they were called Richmond — the island’s county name to this day.
Queens was split in the deal: its western towns joined the new city, and the eastern towns stayed behind and became Nassau County in 1899. Manhattan was the simple case, since it was already the city. This is the part most explanations skip, and it is the part that makes the borough map make sense: the lines are not administrative conveniences drawn on a map, they are the borders of the places that walked into the merger.
Why anyone wanted it
The case for consolidation was made in the language of scale and efficiency.
Movements for consolidation had been considered as far back as 1820, but by the end of the 19th century proponents were claiming that a single metropolitan jurisdiction stretching over five boroughs would run more efficiently and cement New York as the economic and cultural capital of the nation.
Underneath the civic language was infrastructure and money.
Proponents of annexation saw that a centralized municipal government could facilitate the development of railroads, utilities and infrastructure necessary to maintain New York’s dominant role in the nation’s economy.
Bridges, water, sewers, rail and port improvements were all easier to plan and finance across one jurisdiction than five, and the tax base of Manhattan's commercial districts was the resource that could pay for them in the outer boroughs. That trade, Manhattan's money for the outer boroughs' independence, is the deal at the center of the whole thing.
Brooklyn's 277 votes
The merger required public approval in the areas being annexed, and Brooklyn was the hard sell.
Resistance was strongest among residents of Brooklyn, who did not want to see their city’s independent identity smothered by New York and their Republican government swamped by the huge numbers of Democrats in Manhattan.
The referendum in Brooklyn passed by 277 votes, 64,744 for consolidation against 64,467 opposed. A margin that thin, on a question about whether a city should continue to exist, is why the phrase the Great Mistake still turns up in Brooklyn a century and a quarter later, usually with a smile and not always with one. Persuading the annexed areas at all had taken a generation.
It took nearly thirty years to persuade voters in the areas to be annexed of the benefits of consolidation.
What the merger still determines
The 1898 structure is not a historical footnote; it is the reason the city's government has the shape it does. Each borough kept a borough president, an office created to give the merged cities a voice at the center, and the job still exists with a reduced portfolio. Each borough is also a county for state purposes, which is why New York has five district attorneys elected separately rather than one city prosecutor. Property assessment, court systems, and the community board structure all sit on those same 1898 county lines.
For how the offices that merger created work now, read our explainers on what a borough president does and who runs New York City. For the longer story of the campaign and the man who spent thirty years on it, see our history of the birth of Greater New York.
The questions New Yorkers actually ask
Why does New York City have five boroughs?
Because on January 1, 1898, five separate jurisdictions merged into one city. Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island had been distinct governments, and consolidation combined them into the City of Greater New York while preserving each as a borough.
When did Brooklyn become part of New York City?
January 1, 1898. Brooklyn voters approved consolidation in an 1894 referendum by 277 votes, 64,744 to 64,467, and the merger took effect four years later.
What was New York City before 1898?
Manhattan and part of what later became the Bronx. The Bronx territory was annexed from Lower Westchester County in two stages, west of the Bronx River in 1873 and east of it in 1895.
Why is Staten Island called Richmond?
Richmond was the name of the county and the original borough name, taken from the collection of separate towns on the island. The borough name was officially changed to Staten Island in the 1970s, but Richmond County remains its legal county name.
Why did part of Queens not join?
Only western Queens joined the consolidation. The eastern towns stayed out and were organized as Nassau County in 1899, which is why the Queens borough line and the old Queens County line are not the same.
What is the Great Mistake of 1898?
A nickname used in Brooklyn for consolidation, reflecting the view that Brooklyn gave up an independent identity as the fourth-largest city in the country. The referendum's 277-vote margin keeps the phrase alive.
Does the 1898 merger still affect city government?
Yes. Borough presidents exist because of it, each borough is still a county with its own district attorney, and court systems, property assessment and community boards all sit on the county lines the merger fixed.
The documents
The public records this page draws on. Read them yourself:
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