Today, Ridgewood's land area lies within Queens County.
 However, its political boundary with Brooklyn causes confusion and debate about where the western boundary of Ridgewood truly lies and whether part of Ridgewood is considered to be actually part of Brooklyn.
The political dispute dates to the 17th century, when Newtown was under English rule and Boswijck was under Dutch rule.
Disputes over the boundary between the two settlements continued until 1769, when a boundary line was drawn through what later became known as the Arbitration Rock.
The street grid plan in Ridgewood and Bushwick was laid out in the late 19th century.
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.
During the 19th century, this resulted in situations where some houses received water and fire protection from what was then the city of Brooklyn, while their neighbors in Queens had to rely on volunteer firefighting squads and paid exorbitant water bills to private utilities in Elmhurst.

In 1925, the political boundary was adapted to the street grid, resulting in a zig-zag pattern.
The change resulted in 2,543 persons' addresses being reassigned from Queens to Brooklyn, and 135 persons' addresses reassigned from Brooklyn to Queens.
Modern addresses in the two boroughs can be distinguished by the presence or absence of a hyphen in the house number.
Queens's house numbering system uses a hyphen between the closest cross-street (which comes before the hyphen) and the actual address (which comes after the hyphen).
While buildings fronting on streets that are west of Forest Avenue and the Bay Ridge Branch follow the Queens address numbering system, the avenues which run parallel to the county line—bounded by Metropolitan Avenue to the north, Forest Avenue to the east, and the Brooklyn border to the south—do not follow this address numbering system.
Streets in this area that run perpendicular to the county line are demarcated by a jump in numbering sequence between the two boroughs.
Today, Ridgewood's land area lies within Queens County.  However, its political boundary with Brooklyn causes confusion and debate about where the western boundary of Ridgewood truly lies and whether part of Ridgewood is considered to be actually part of Brooklyn. The political dispute dates to the 17th century, when Newtown was under English rule and Boswijck was under Dutch rule. Disputes over the boundary between the two settlements continued until 1769, when a boundary line was drawn through what later became known as the Arbitration Rock. The street grid plan in Ridgewood and Bushwick was laid out in the late 19th century. 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. During the 19th century, this resulted in situations where some houses received water and fire protection from what was then the city of Brooklyn, while their neighbors in Queens had to rely on volunteer firefighting squads and paid exorbitant water bills to private utilities in Elmhurst.
In 1925, the political boundary was adapted to the street grid, resulting in a zig-zag pattern. The change resulted in 2,543 persons' addresses being reassigned from Queens to Brooklyn, and 135 persons' addresses reassigned from Brooklyn to Queens. Modern addresses in the two boroughs can be distinguished by the presence or absence of a hyphen in the house number. Queens's house numbering system uses a hyphen between the closest cross-street (which comes before the hyphen) and the actual address (which comes after the hyphen). While buildings fronting on streets that are west of Forest Avenue and the Bay Ridge Branch follow the Queens address numbering system, the avenues which run parallel to the county line—bounded by Metropolitan Avenue to the north, Forest Avenue to the east, and the Brooklyn border to the south—do not follow this address numbering system. Streets in this area that run perpendicular to the county line are demarcated by a jump in numbering sequence between the two boroughs.
Ridgewood, Queens