all-night forced march at this pass in August 1776 to surprise and flank General George Washington and the Continental Army, to win the Battle of Long Island (also known as the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights). In 1835, Connecticut merchant John Pitkin (the namesake of Pitkin Avenue) purchased the land of the Town of New Lots north of New Lots Avenue, opening a shoe factory at what is now Williams Street and Pitkin Avenue. Pitkin named the area "East New York" to signify it as the eastern end of New York City. In 1836 the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad (soon to become part of the Long Island Rail Road) opened through the area; it did not originally stop in East New York, but a stop there was added by 1844. The LIRR moved its terminus to Queens in 1860, and the line through Brooklyn was shortened to end at East New York. In 1852, New Lots was officially ceded from the Town of Flatbush. In the middle 19th century, the road between Brooklyn and Jamaica became the Brooklyn and Jamaica Plank Road. The Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad (1865) was built to connect the LIRR's Atlantic Branch with Canarsie at a point later known as Broadway Junction. As often happened at 19th-century railroad junctions, a railway town arose. Sprawling development into the recently rustic northern part of the Town of New Lots followed the reach of elevated transit lines into the area: the Jamaica Avenue Line in 1885 and the Fulton Street Line in 1889. The road to Brooklyn was renamed Fulton Street, the one to Jamaica, Jamaica Avenue, and the one to Williamsburg, Broadway. Annexation to Brooklyn and 20th century East New York (as the Town of New Lots) was annexed as the 26th Ward of the rapidly growing City of Brooklyn in 1886; in 1898 after a decade-long controversy with debates, campaigns and publicity, the community was merged into New York City as a whole with the consolidation of Brooklyn and the other four boroughs into a single entity as the "City of Greater New York". In the 20th century its name came to be applied to much of the former township. In 1939, the Works Progress Administration Guide to New York City wrote: After World War II, thousands of manufacturing jobs left New York City thereby increasing the importance of the remaining jobs