City of Greater New York

The City of Greater New York was the term used by many politicians and scholars for the expanded City of New York created on January 1, 1898 by consolidating the existing City of New York with the East Bronx, Brooklyn, most of Queens County, and Staten Island. The section of the Bronx west of the Bronx River had been annexed to the City and County of New York in 1874, and was known as the Annexed District. In the years leading up to consolidation, the City of Brooklyn had expanded by annexing all of the other towns and cities in Kings County. Only the western part of Queens County was part of the consolidation plan. In 1899, its three eastern towns separated to form the new Nassau County.

While remaining a county in relation to the state, each county became a borough within the City, with the Bronx reunited to form a fifth borough that shared New York County with Manhattan. A separate Bronx County was established in 1914 (see History of the Bronx#Before 1914), making the present New York County co-extensive with the Borough of Manhattan.

The term City of Greater New York was never a legal or official designation as both the original charter of 1898 and the newer one of 1938 use the name of City of New York. It is still used in modern-day books relating or including the time period when the consolidation took place.

Since the late 1820s there had been some discussion of a unified city, with the New York State legislature voting in 1857 that the region surrounding New-York City should become one more efficient body. In the beginning it already wasn’t the people but the State Legislature in New York that attempted to unify the city. They attempted to do so by government vote, in order to improve harbor facilities and link the systems of trade, but distrust of large projects killed the plans. The consolidation movement was the work of politicians both local, city, and state, most prominently the president of the "Greater New-York Commission" and "The Father of Greater New York"Andrew Haswell Green. He, as it so happened, was at the time also a member and greatly involved “Member of the Board of Commissioners of Central Park” which provided him a platform to push his views. The next real challenge to the independence of the boroughs was a self-promoted and government appointed commission. The commission led the “Vote for Greater New York" movement and was the force behind its coming to fruition. Some opponents derided the effort as "Andy Green's hobby", but eventually they were proven wrong. The center of the plan was the consolidation of the twin cities of New York and Brooklyn, whose fire departments had been merged into a Metropolitan Fire District in 1865. The addition of Long Island City and various rural areas anticipated future development of those areas. With Republicans historically more powerful in Brooklyn and Democrats elsewhere, partisan politics played a role, each major political party hoping to dominate the consolidated city.

...
Wikipedia