By David Brand

Long before the “United States” was even a country or modern “New York City” a single colossal metropolis, a fundamental dispute raged between residents of Queens County and Kings County. Where, exactly, did one county end and the other begin?

To settle the century-old dispute, surveyors officially marked the boundary, placing a large stone, known Arbitration Rock, at the border of Newtown, the name of a former colonial-era town in central Queens, and Brooklyn in 1769.

More than 250 years later, that boulder inspired a renewal of the rivalry, this time featuring fewer farmers arguing over exactly how far their livestock could roam and more kids testing how low they could go beneath a limbo bar.

The Greater Ridgewood Historical Society hosted the first annual Battle of the Boroughs at the historic Vander Ende-Onderdonk House Saturday, Aug 17, a day commemorated as Arbitration Day. The event pitted Queens residents against Brooklyn residents in a true test of wills. Babies crawled to the finish line in the diaper dash, kids and adults raced around in the egg spoon relay and people of all ages busted a move in the dance off.