Brookhaven (city, New York)

The total area of ​​the Brookhaven Municipal District is 1,376.6 km², the largest New York Municipal District by area, but the land area is less than 50% (671.6 km²). The population is 486,040 people (as of 2010 ). The population density is 723.7 people / km². In racial terms: 88.4% of the inhabitants are white , including 8% are Hispanic ; 4.3% are African American; 2.9% are Asians . The municipal district consists of 9 settlements (village) with self-government, and 50 settlements (hamlet) without self-government.

Brookhaven is located in Suffolk County, New York State, in the center of Long Island . The Brookhaven Municipal District in the north is constituted by the Long Island Strait , and in the south by the Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean .

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, various tribes of Algonquin Indians lived in the place where the municipal district is now located. The first settlement of Europeans (immigrants from New England) is attributed to 1655. It was named for one of the Setoket Indian tribes. The name Brookhaven was first mentioned in writing in 1666 and for some time at the same time as Setoket was used both for the name of the settlement and for the entire area. Later, the name Setoket was assigned to the settlement, and Brookhaven to the area. The early settlers lived in fishing and farming. In the XIX century, industrial development begins (shipbuilding, rubber production and more).

The city has the Brookhaven National Laboratory , one of the largest research institutes in the United States with a charged particle accelerator built here. Stony Brook University is also located in Brookhaven.