[8][9] Another possible etymology is the forests that covered the area before colonial settlement, and that early English settlers called the moraine the "ridge" of Long Island.

Both were initially settled by the Lenape Native Americans, specifically the Mespachtes tribe (for whom the adjacent neighborhood of Maspeth is named).

[9] In both neighborhoods, British and Dutch families tilled farms and grew crops for Brooklyn's and Manhattan's markets.

Ten years later, the Myrtle Avenue Elevated was extended on a ground level alignment over that trolley line.

[26] By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, German immigrants had moved to other enclaves such as Yorkville, Manhattan; Steinway, Queens; and the north Brooklyn/Ridgewood area.

[21][19] Factories and knitting mills were also opened within the communities, and speculative German developers built houses, consisting mostly of multi-family stock that were three or four stories tall.

[28][29] Ridgewood remained rural until the unification of New York City's boroughs in 1898, even as Bushwick had become fully developed.

Development in Ridgewood in the 19th century consisted mostly of picnicking locations, beer gardens, racetracks, and amusement areas for the residents of Bushwick.

By the end of the century, developers had bought these sites and started constructing rowhouses and tenements, usually two to three stories high.

[19][30] The Ridgewood Board of Trade, created in 1902, was organized to develop the streets and utilities, and to improve the transit infrastructure.

Residential construction predominated in the southern part of Ridgewood while industrial factories and mills were prevalent in the northern section, near Newtown Creek.

[34][35] Two of the more drastic changes to Ridgewood's character in the 1920s were the implementation of a street numbering system across Queens in 1925,[36] followed by the opening of the Canarsie subway on the neighborhood's southern border in 1928.

[39] A 1913 Real Estate Record article stated that, for several years, Germans had been moving to Ridgewood from the city's other boroughs.

[42] Figures from the 1910 United States Census indicated that much of Ridgewood's population was working-class and of German or Eastern European descent, and many homes were owner-occupied.

By the late 20th century, Poles, Dominicans,[49][50][51] and Ecuadorians—including a significant population of Quechua-speaking Amerindians from the Imbabura and Cañar provinces of Ecuador—had moved to Ridgewood.

[62] In 2018, an estimated 19% of Ridgewood and Maspeth residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City.

Based on this calculation, as of 2018[update], Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale are considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

[63] The majority of the neighborhood covers a large hill, part of the glacial moraine that created Long Island, which starts at Metropolitan Avenue, rises steeply for about two blocks, then slopes down gently.

[63] Ridgewood is visually distinguished by the large amount of yellow face brick construction, which is characteristic of the early-20th-century rowhouses built in the neighborhoods.

[72][76] Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale are patrolled by the 104th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 64-02 Catalpa Avenue.

However, the precinct covers a large diamond-shaped area, and Maspeth and Middle Village are generally seen as safer than Ridgewood.

[59]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Ridgewood and Maspeth is 0.008 mg/m3 (8.0×10−9 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.

Because the Arbitration Rock lay along a diagonal with this grid plan, numerous houses were built on the Brooklyn-Queens boundary, their owners sometimes subject to taxes from both counties.

Streets in this area that run perpendicular to the county line are demarcated by a jump in numbering sequence between the two boroughs.

[89] Since at least 1898, when the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens were created as part of the City of Greater New York, Glendale and Ridgewood's postal mail had been routed through the main Brooklyn post office in Williamsburg, rather than the main post office in Flushing, because they are located closer to Williamsburg.

Ridgewood and Maspeth generally have a lower rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city as of 2018[update].

[95] Ridgewood and Maspeth's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is less than the rest of New York City.

[60]: 24 (PDF p. 55) [59]: 6  Additionally, 82% of high school students in Ridgewood and Maspeth graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.

The first one is the Notre Dame Catholic Academy (formerly known as Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal School) located on Bleecker and 61st Streets.

[110] In addition, the neighborhood is home to the large Fresh Pond Bus Depot, which services many of the buses that run throughout Brooklyn and Queens.