In the beginning, there was only 212 across all the land that is known as New York City. It was one of the first area codes in the country assigned in 1947 and was considered the easiest to dial on rotary phones.
Then, in 1984 with the rise of fax machines coupled with population growth, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were split from the good ol’ 212 and thus gave rise to the 718 for these three boroughs while The Bronx and Manhattan remained the historic and coveted 212.
But that didn’t last too long because by the early 90s, it was determined that once again, the 212 area code would run out of numbers so in order to prevent that, The Bronx was pushed out and lumped into 718 along with a new 917 area code that covered the entire city in 1992.
Now, 32 years and four additional area codes later, New York City is once again facing another number shortage and in order to prevent that from happening, a new area code has been proposed for the outer boroughs of The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island (along with Marble Hill section of Manhattan).