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Brooklyn, New York (U.S.)

by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 25 July 2000

Former flag

See also:

The flag of the Borough of Brooklyn is based on the flag of the old City of Brooklyn, which of course lasted until "The Great Mistake of (18) '98" of union into Greater New York. You can find one of the old flags on a wall in Borough Hall, right next to the new Brooklyn Tourist Office. The motto on both flags is, "Een Draght Mackt Maght", meaning "In Unity there is Strength". This is also the meaning of the fasces the woman is carrying, a traditional Roman and Classical Republican symbol of Unity, expressed by the rods bundled together around the axe. This was before this symbol was degraded by Mussolini. I have seen old magazine illustrations from the controversial period before the 1898 creation of Greater New York, and the editorial cartoons always show Brooklyn as a woman, as opposed to her male suitor of New York. So the woman may represent Brooklyn herself, and the rods of the fasces the many towns from which the City of Brooklyn was itself formed.

The current 'official colors' of Brooklyn are blue and gold, and these clearly derive from the current Borough flag, and I don't think they have any other special meaning. Note that these colors are not in the old Brooklyn City Flag. The honor of the Brooklyn colors reached its highest ebb when Borough President Marty Markowitz wore a pair of boxing shorts in blue and gold to publicize his 'Lighten Up, Brooklyn' weight-loss campaign. Otherwise I, at least, would never have heard
of them.
Richard Knipel, 8 July 2004

From the on-line city administrative code City Flag:
Brooklyn Borough Flag
§ 2-105 Official flag; borough of Brooklyn.
a. The following description is hereby adopted as the description of the official flag of the borough of Brooklyn.
A white background in the center of which is the design of the seal. Within the seal appears a figure of the goddess of justice in gold holding Roman fasces in her left hand set on a background of light blue. Encircling her figure on a background of dark blue appear the words "Een Draght Mackt Maght" the old Dutch motto for "In unity there is strength" and below the words "borough of Brooklyn." The outside and inside trim of the seal is gold.
Joe McMillan, 15 August 2003

Brooklyn is today represented by one star in the inner circle of the NYC Police Department flag, being one of the three cities (as opposed to towns and villages) that formed the City of Great New York in 1898 (along with the existing City of New York and the Long Island City).
Richard Knipel, 31 July 2004

Former Flag

by Richard Knipel

Brooklyn, my home and now one of five boroughs of New York City, was once its own city. Indeed, for much of the 19th Century it was the third largest city in the