Brooklyn's Nordic waterfront
Little Norway in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, and what came after.
Little Norway, 1920
Sailors and shipbuilders from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland settled near the Brooklyn docks. In 1920 they made up about four in ten people mapped in Sunset Park.
Still Nordic, 1950
Even in 1950, Nordic New Yorkers were the largest group here. Eighth Avenue was known as Lapskaus Boulevard, after the Norwegian stew.
Moving on, 1980
After the Verrazzano bridge opened, Nordic families moved to Staten Island and New Jersey. By 1980 Puerto Ricans were the largest group here.
Brooklyn's Chinatown, 2010
By 2010 about 44,000 Chinese New Yorkers lived here, the largest group. Brooklyn's Chinatown now fills the streets that were Little Norway.
Where New York Came From: a map of NYC immigration and ancestry, 1910 to today