Fulton Ferry House with horse-drawn trolleys seen at front, date unknown \[likely prior to 1900].

Food has always played an important role in the history of Brooklyn. Not only has food manufacturing occupied Brooklyn factories and employed its citizens, but historic food establishments have become icons: some for their architecture, others for their atmosphere and still others for their delicacies.

Building the Brooklyn Bridge was dangerous work. The project took at least 20 lives. Among the dead was John A. Roebling, the bridge’s designer, who contracted tetanus after his foot was hit by a boat at the Fulton Ferry landing in 1869. Unlike Roebling, most of the casualties were not celebrated men. Since some deaths went unrecorded, we will never know exactly how many men died constructing “The Great East River Bridge.”

Nos. 8-12 Everit Street, ca. 1958. No. 8 (at right) is listed as a "cigar box factory" on an 1887 Sanborn map.

In 1814, Robert Fulton, inventor of the world’s first successful steamboat, established a steam-powered ferry to traverse the East River between what is now Fulton Street in Brooklyn and Fulton Street in Manhattan. Fulton’s steam ferry sparked an era of rapid growth in Brooklyn. Within less than 50 years, the sleepy village transformed into the third-largest city in America.

Storefronts on Old Fulton Street, ca. 1975. The buildings date to the late 1830s, when they comprised small commercial district near the Fulton Ferry, including manufacturers, grocers, and taverns.

No. 4 Water Street, ca. 1975.

Brooklynites have long known that Emily Warren Roebling was a key player in the building of their bridge, which was the longest, tallest suspension bridge in the world when it opened on May 24, 1883. Still, the naming of “Emily Warren Roebling Way” comes as Roebling herself enjoys a moment in the limelight. Last Thursday, the bridge celebrated its 135th birthday, which generated fresh discussions of Roebling’s essential role in the project.

Railroad sheds at Pier 21 on the East River, March 30, 1937. Berenice Abbott's photo captures the pier shed of the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads at Pier 21 with the Brooklyn Bridge immediately above and Manhattan Bridge in the background. The pier was removed in the late 1960s.

View of newly built park deck at Fulton Ferry Landing, ca. 1975. Ferry service operated at this crossing as early as 1642, but the Fulton Ferry takes its name from Robert Fulton’s revolutionary steam ferry service, which made its debut in 1814. The construction of the East River bridges contributed to declining ferry ridership, and Fulton Ferry service ceased in 1924.

Construction on the South Street Pumping Station, across South Street from the Long Island Railroad Freight Depot at East River Pier 32; undated photo. A May 1885 report in the Babylon Budget detailed construction of the new depot at piers 32 and 33, "which promises to be the handsomest and most substantial on the whole riverfront." The report further quoted from the Fishing Dispatch trade publication, claiming the depot's construction had been driven by a fourfold increase in freight traffic. Pier 32 was also used for Ferry Service to Long Island City. At the turn of the century, the facing block on South Street was transformed as four buildings, Nos. 191-194, were razed for the construction of the fire department's South Street Pumping Station, completed in 1909. Around the same time, the East River piers were renumbered. By 1922, freight storage for the Pennsylvania and Long Island railroads had expanded to occupy the area between the Pier 22 (formerly 30-31), at foot of Roosevelt Street, and Pier 25 (formerly 33), at the foot of Oliver Street. Most of the piers in this area were removed by 1977.

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society walkway and the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1975.

Brooklyn Bridge ca. 1903 Opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge ushered in the era of the new metropolis, closing the chapter had been a compact unified, "walking" city. Extended routes of daily travel and multiple neighborhoods for dwelling, working, shopping, entertainment, and all other aspects of the urban quotidian became the norm for most New Yorkers thereafter. As the first twisted-steel cable (the cables measure 15 3/4" in diameter) bridge and the first span bridge of such prodigious length, the Brooklyn Bridge inaugurated a new era of modern bridge building. All bridges built after it- the Manhattan and Williamsburg, the George Washington, the Golden Gate, and others - derived much of their engineering methods from this project. Additionally, the Brooklyn bridge, referred to when it opened as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," facilitated metropolitan consolidation; this, in turn, contributed to a widening sense of regional identity, underscoring the commercial and sociological importance of the bridges themselves. In the 1840s, German-born engineer John Roebling developed a cable made of twisted steel wire, the strongest and most resilient technique ever devised for this kind of bridge construction. The new cable enabled the construction of the longest bridge ever known. Improved methods for sinking the pneumatic caissons - the huge airtight boxes of compressed air provided for workers excavating beneath the river beds- were developed during this project. In 1869, while John Roebling was trying to determine the location of the Brooklyn tower, his leg was crushed by an incoming ferry. Roebling died from the resulting gangrene. He was succeeded as project director by his son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling. In the summer of 1872, Washington became incapacitated by decompression illness, also known as the bends or caisson disease. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, oversaw the last ten years of the bridge's construction in what may be a unique instance of a woman in the bridge world. It became and remains a major New York City icon.

Today, Fulton Mall is a bustling shopping district in Downtown Brooklyn. During the late-Victorian / early-Edwardian eras (think 1880-1910), it was the preeminent thoroughfare for fashionable shopping in Brooklyn. With monumental department stores like Abraham & Straus and impeccable restaurants like Gage & Tollner, shoppers and window shoppers alike teamed Fulton Street to see everything from the latest wedding trousseau to mourning veils, and penny candy to soft clam bellies in Duxbury stew. While most of these businesses no longer exist, many of their architectural remains can be found behind and above their modern facades.

Stable on Everit Street, off of Cadman Plaza West (Fulton Street), ca. 1975.

Bridge Cafe 279 Water Street Architect unknown 1794 Adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bridge Café is the district’s only extant wood-frame building. The building originally housed a grocery and a wine and porter bottler, and was initially only two-and-a-half stories high with a peaked roof. In 1888, the exterior was altered: its peaked roof was removed and the façade was covered with novelty Victorian-era siding. At present, the façade is painted brick red with black trim. The building has retained its commercial use for over 200 years. In fact, the Bridge Café was the oldest continuously running tavern in New York City until it closed in 2012 after Superstorm Sandy. Former Mayor Edward Koch was a regular customer in the 1970s. The owners are currently repairing the building and are hoping to re-open the Café in 2016. The Bridge Café is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Long Island Safe Deposit Company building, 1 Front Street.

146 Beekman Street, date unknown. Constructed in 1885 as a smokehouse, the building at 146 Beekman has been tied to the NYC fishing industry, centered in this neighborhood, since its construction. By 1904, the building was also the headquarters of the New York Wholesale Fish Dealers Association. The painted signs on the facade that read "Fresh, Salt Smoked Fish" were in place by the 1930s, though likely were painted earlier. From 1914 to 1997 the building was home to the The Meyer and Thompson Smoked Fish Company. In 2004 a bar and cafe called Fresh Salt opened in the ground floor space and, despite damage endured during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, remains open, serving the neighborhood under its historic sign.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most iconic symbols of New York. Try imagining the skyline without the looming Gothic towers. Now try to imagine no bridges over the East River to connect the separate cities of Brooklyn and Manhattan and having to rely on overcrowded, unreliable, and generally unsafe ferries. This was the reality of 1850s New York. Yet the Brooklyn Bridge almost didn’t happen. Amid rumors of curses on the designer’s family, corruption, and death came amazing technological innovations and people doing incredible things. The idea of putting a bridge across the East River wasn’t a new idea even in 1850. Plans were discussed, made, and scrapped regularly with strident opposition on basically every element, including the very big question of whether it was even possible to traverse the East River. And, if it was, then at 1,600 feet across, it’d be the longest span of bridge in the world at that time. To say that German immigrant John A. Roebling was born to meet this challenge would be a gross overstatement and cliche, but in this case it seems to work. He had created new forms of steel cables that aided his designs of technically brilliant bridges in Cincinnati and Niagara Falls. In 1867, his plans for the “East River and Brooklyn Bridge” (its previous official name) were accepted by the Tammany Hall-controlled New York Bridge Company and he was named Chief Engineer. But, on June 28, 1869, as John A. Roebling was measuring possible locations for the towers of the bridge near the Fulton Ferry, a boat hit his foot and crushed his toes. Within a month, he died of tetanus. His son and partner, 32 year-old Washington Roebling, overcame his grief and took over his father’s position as the Chief Engineer, determined to finish what they had started. This would not be the last tragedy or death that would befall the Roebling family, or the construction of the bridge. Under Washington Roebling’s supervision the construction began in earnest on January 2, 1870. The first step was building caissons, which are watertight structures with a series of airlocks to provide dry underwater space for workers to dig the foundation into solid rock. Roebling and his men worked in conditions described by Master Mechanic E.F. Farrington: ” The temperature in the caissons was about 80 \[degrees], and the workmen, with half-naked bodies, seen in dim, uncertain light brought vividly to life Dante’s ‘Inferno’.” But beyond bringing to life poetic masterpieces, there were far more real problems to contend with – fires and explosions plagued the caissons as did the deadly “caisson disease” now known as “the bends” or more technically, decompression sickness. During the construction of the bridge, over one hundred men contracted and were killed or severely debilitated by caisson disease, including Washington Roebling. S. A. (Silas A.) Holmes (1819 or 20-1886). New York Caisson nearly down. 1872. Museum of the City of New York. 57.15.4. In early 1872, after working 12 straight hours in the caisson, Roebling rose to the surface from the compressed air too quickly and according to some reports, promptly passed out. This began his lifelong battle with the disease that would cause him pain, partial paralysis, temporary loss of his voice and sight, and all sorts of other terrible symptoms that led him to be an invalid for rest of the construction of the bridge and most of his life, forcing him to become bedridden, threatening his position as Chief Engineer. However, all was not lost. Using a telescope from the bedroom window of his house on 106 Columbia Street in Brooklyn, Washington would give notes and directions to his wife Emily to take to the engineers on the bridge. Emily had taught herself the math and science to help her husband throughout the project, and now she was using her knowledge to oversee construction while also speaking to distributors, politicians, and all levels of workers, making so many important decisions that it was not long before some begin to think of her as the de facto Chief Engineer, going so far as to believe she was the true intelligence behind the bridge’s design and completion. Indeed, even the New York Times gave her credit right after the bridge opened (and keep in mind, this was at the height of the Gilded Age, when it was still debated if women could even actually learn). But another 11 years passed as the bridge inched slowly toward completion. There was fraud with sub par material, political and public outcry about the bridge being constantly delayed, and constant newspaper columns complaining about it going over budget. (For an 1878 article titled “Are We Wasting Money?” that suggests that destroying the towers of the bridge would really be, in fact, the best way to proceed, click here.). Adding to the drama was a last minute move by Mayor Seth Low to dismiss Washington Roebling from his position as Chief Engineer, due to his inability to personally oversee the...

We are standing at one of the greatest seaports on the East Coast. In 1646, when the Dutch first settled here, this was part of the town of Breukelen, now Brooklyn. This busy area hosted ships carrying imported goods and exporting produce and other commodities to neighboring New Amsterdam (now Lower Manhattan), other colonies in the Americas, and Europe. Now look across the river at the sailing ships at the South Street Seaport and imagine them unloading their cargo. That was the bustling town of New Amsterdam—the commercial and financial center of Dutch and later English colonial operations. Ferries carried goods and people back and forth. It was a busy, noisy place, strange and frightening to many of the enslaved people arriving here. By the end of the American Revolution, in 1783, Brooklyn stretched from the DUMBO area up the hill to present–day Brooklyn Heights. The Fulton Landing lay at the heart of the town of Brooklyn. Businesses, then houses, spread outward from here, as streets were laid, shops, taverns, and churches built. Fulton’s steam ferry, which travelled between Brooklyn and Manhattan, began running in 1814. It decreased commuting times and made Brooklyn a desirable place to live for those who worked in Manhattan. This site is where the story of the emerging city of Brooklyn begins. (text from the Brooklyn Historical Society exhibition "In Pursuit of Freedom")

One of the most interesting structures in the State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport Historic Districts is the Romanesque Revival building that was erected in 1885 for Ellen S. Auchmuty, a Schermerhorn family descendent. It was designed by George B. Post, an architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition, who also designed the old New York Times Building (1889) at Printing House Square, Bronx Borough Hall (1897), and the New York Stock Exchange (1904).

1 Old Fulton Street, ca. 1958. The four-story corner building at the intersection of Water and Old Fulton Streets dates to the late 1830s, when it opened as the Franklin House hotel.

Corner of Fulton Street & Front Street, 1958 What a difference a few decades make! Built in 1869, this 1958 photograph of 1 Front Street from nearly a century later shows the aging of its unique cast iron facade. Described by the NY Times as an "eccentric Renaissance palazzo" this building's facade, once green with age now gleams white. Built by the Long Island Safety Deposit Company, it is the oldest surviving bank building in New York and in 1971 had a cameo in the Sophia Loren film "Mortadella."

Brooklyn City Railroad Company Building ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: c. 1861 STYLE: French Second Empire Erected in 1860-61, this handsome building is a dignified commercial example of the French Second Empire style of the Civil War period. It was built as an office for the Brooklyn City Railroad Company, which had been incorporated in 1853 and had replaced the old stage lines which once provided transportation to Fulton Ferry. This building, at the intersection of Fulton and Furman Streets, stands on the site of William Furman’s house, seen on a map of the Old Ferry District in 1816.

Tobacco Inspection Warehouse and Brooklyn Bridge, May 22, 1936. The Tobacco Warehouse was best recognized in the later 20th century as a hollow, roofless building. Berenice Abbott captured it here in 1936 prior to its near abandonment. Built in the 1860s the large brick warehouse was originally five stories. It was used as a tobacco storage space and the customs inspection center for tobacco. In the 1890s, 90% of Brooklyn's tobacco trade occurred here. By the mid 20th century the tobacco warehouse was no longer and the building was occupied by a metal reclaiming company. By the 1970s the roof of the, then remaining two stories, was gone and left the building open to the elements. Despite some initial legal issues related to the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Tobacco Warehouse underwent a massive and multi-million dollar renovation between 2013-2015. It has been transformed (with new roof added) into a theatre venue for the avant-garde theater group St. Ann's Warehouse. The renovations included constructing a brand new building just inside (like an inch from) the original walls.

174 South Street, 1934. No. 174, a four-story brick building which sat directly under the Brooklyn Bridge, was the home where Al Smith, four-time New York State Governor, was born in 1873.

Paris Cafe certainly fits the bill of New York's oldest watering holes. The pub has proudly served beer since 1873, as is noted on the building's facade. The bar was founded by Henry Meyers, an alcohol merchant, who opened the pub to accompany his hotel upstairs. In its heyday, the Meyer Hotel hosted numerous celebrities, including a young Theodore Roosevelt, the cowboy Buffalo Bill, and outlaw Butch Cassidy, to name a few. However, once passenger ships diverted traffic by docking at the Chelsea Piers rather than the Seaport, the hotel briefly fell into obscurity. Shortly after, the mob took over the business and the Meyer Hotel saw a rotating cast of mafiosos use its quarters. In 1951, the building was purchased from the Meyer family estate by Silvio (Steve) Schiaffino. It was Schiaffino who christened the establishment with its new name. At first, he renamed the eatery "Paris Bar and Restaurant," after his prior business which he lost to the city. The name has since been simplified to Paris Cafe. Schiaffino made extensive updates to the kitchen and dining area of the Cafe. Despite renovations, the longshoreman's pub kept its original ornate polished wood bar that was shipped from Germany. Both the bar and the sparkling mirrors behind it have maintained their illustrious sheen for almost 150 years, even surviving a devastating flood brought on by Hurricane Sandy. Sadly in 2020, the fabled bar was forced to close its doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Did you ever wonder about how historic City records make their way to the Municipal Archives? Did you assume that all the documents, photographs, maps, ledgers, plans, etc. in the Archives had been dutifully maintained in their “creating” City offices, and then carefully transferred to their permanent home at 31 Chambers Street?

The Fish Market on South Street between Peck Slip and Beekman Street, November 26, 1935. By the time Berenice Abbott took this picture in 1936, the South Street fish market filled a six-block area and was the largest wholesale seafood market on the Atlantic Coast. At the southern end of the block (Nos. 116-119) is Meyer's Hotel, notorious for selling alcohol during Prohibition.

My Archive Spring 2019 "One day in 2002 I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with my two little kids. We stopped to take photos on the bridge. I had just started to shoot film again with my old camera and had loaded up a black and white roll. The bridge was pretty empty, as it was not too long after 9/11, and the bridge was less crowded in general back then. I bent down to be more eye level with my son who wanted to try the camera." —Meredith Marciano

Row of buildings on South Street between James Slip and Roosevelt Street, April 1, 1937. In the background: the Wall Street skyline, with 60 Wall Tower (left), 40 Wall Street (middle) and the top of the Singer Tower on Broadway (right). The South Street buildings were razed in 1950 for the construction of NYCHA's Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, which opened on April 1, 1953 — sixteen years to the day after this photo was taken.

Ferries have made a bit of a comeback lately with the East River Ferry, Governor’s Island Ferry, and even a ferry to Ikea in Brooklyn. The first ferry route between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, however, was established in the 1630s, just a few years after the settling of New York by the Dutch. While Cornelius Dircksen Hoagland may have been the first to run a ferry between the two boroughs, Robert Fulton and his brother-in-law William Cutting popularized it in more modern times.

In August 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving some women—but not all—the right to vote at the national level. Celebrate the centennial of suffrage with a tour of New York locations that were important in the history of women’s rights.

5-7 Front Street, ca. 1958. Known to be the oldest surviving office building in New York City, 5-7 Front Street was originally erected in 1827 for the Long Island Insurance Company. Made of granite, brick, and stone, the building is among the district's earliest examples of the Greek Revival style. Today the building houses a restaurant, Gran Electrica, on its ground-floor.

251 Water Street, door detail, ca. 1960. Constructed in 1888 for John N. Eitel, a clothing merchant, the Romanesque Revival and Italianate building is a striking structure. The main entrance facade (at 22 Peck Slip) opens up into three sweeping archways and the residential entrance on Water Street features a detailed terra cotta plaque above the door, as seen here. Suffering through the middle of the 20th century, along with the rest of the Seaport area, the building lost some ornamentation, including its cornice. A more recent renovation has restored the facade of the building, and the once seafood wholesale market now has a bar and restaurant on the ground floor.

Located in the Fulton Ferry Historic District in Brooklyn, the Fulton Ferry Fireboat House was built in 1926 on the former site of the old Fulton Ferry Terminal. Two years’ prior, Brooklyn’s Union Ferry Company had terminated service from this location due to the declining number of ferry commuters. This occurred in part because the early 1900s saw a rise in alternate means of available transportation including automobiles and newly constructed bridges spanning the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, followed by the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903, and the Manhattan Bridge in 1912. On October 8, 1925, the Fulton Ferry Terminal was destroyed in a massive two alarm fire. The fireboat house was built the following year. During the 1930s, the house was occupied by Fireboat Engine 77, the tower used to dry out the wet firehoses. In 1959, the station changed to Marine Company 7 and remained in operation until 1970. Subsequently, the largely abandoned industrial waterfront began a long process of revitalization. From 1976 to 1982 the boathouse served as headquarters to the Fulton Ferry Museum and National Maritime Historical Society. Today it is home to Ample Hills Creamery.

"Fulton Ferry in Horse Car Days. Street view of the Fulton Ferry Landing, including horse-drawn streetcars, several pedestrians, and the entrance to Franklin House Billard Palor, circa 1890." The Fulton Ferry Terminal (seen here) was built in 1865 at the foot of Fulton Street. Commercial ferry service had been active since 1814 (and functioning in someway since the 1630s), but in the years following the construction of the Ferry Terminal in the mid 1860s, the popularity of the ferry were called into question by severe overcrowding, massive delays, unsafe conditions, and in the winter of 1866, the stoppage of all service when the East River froze. With the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 the vitality of the ferries and the nearby commercial hub waned somewhat. The ferry would survive for forty more years, ceasing service in 1924, and the Ferry Building would be torn down two years later.

Brooklyn Bridge, 1932. Nearly 50 years after the bridge opened the skyline of Manhattan is drastically different.

My Archive Summer 2019 “I’m the only one in the photo and it was taken on May 1999, a few days before college graduation. Seton hall University ran a dinner cruise for seniors and my friends and I went. It was such an amazing night and time in my young life and I couldn’t pass up taking a photo of the bridge with the towers in the background. I loved my time at seton hall and being a born and raised Brooklynite, I thought this was the perfect photo. Still is!” —Christine Bove

142-144 Beekman Street Designed by George B. Post 1885 This fine Romanesque Revival style building was designed by George B. Post for Schermerhorn descendant Ellen S. Auchmuty. Post, who trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition, also designed such notable works as the New York Stock Exchange, Bronx Borough Hall and the Fifth Avenue mansion of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. The Beekman Street façade is ornamented with sea motifs, a fitting theme given that its first occupants were businesses associated with the Fulton Fish Market. The four stories above the cast-iron ground floor are decorated with starfish tie rod washers, fish keystones and a cockle-shell roof cornice made of terra cotta. 142-144 Beekman Street is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

View of Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Waterfront, east of the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1935.

My Archive Spring 2019 "The Brooklyn Bridge on its 100th-anniversary celebration. I was there with many friends, some of whom are in the photograph. May 24th, 1983." —Michael Castellano

"Rudy’s Lunch, Hungarian American Home Cooking,” the Prohibition-friendly guise of the tavern at the corner of Water and Dover Streets, 1932. Built in 1794 (though the historic district designation report lists 1801), 279 Water Street is the only surviving wood-frame house in Manhattan’s Seaport district. Originally home to a “grocery and wine and porter bottler,” the building’s 19th-century tenants included a variety of alcohol-serving establishments and a brothel, matching the area’s reputation for vice and depravity. The building’s Victorian details date to an 1888 renovation — 5 years after the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge opened — and many of its interior features date to the original construction. The Bridge Cafe opened in 1979 but has been shuttered since Hurricane Sandy, when it was inundated with nine feet of floodwater.

Located in the Fulton Ferry Historic District in Brooklyn, the Fulton Ferry Fireboat House was built in 1926 on the former site of the old Fulton Ferry Terminal.

251 Water Street Designed by Carl F. Eisenbach 1893 In 1788-89, Water Street was widened to its current size and paved with cobblestones, but Belgian blocks have since replaced them. John Eitel commissioned this tenement for eight families with stores on the ground floor. This building is an impressive example of the Romanesque Revival style, and features gracious terra-cotta ornament, especially above the entrance on Water Street. The building is separated into three tiers, demarcated between the second and third stories by a stylized foliate band course, and between the fourth and fifth by a geometric-patterned band course. The ground floor features a wooden entrance door in the style of a double-X brace barn door, as well as a set of double doors and wide fanlight enclosed within a large horseshoe arch. The fourth story round-arched windows feature terra-cotta keystones with faces peering down to the street below. The great variety of window treatments and decorative motifs enliven the façade and allow this former tenement building to shine. 251 Water Street is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Brooklyn Bridge ca. 1897 On May 24, 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic, and though now we know it as a beautiful landmark, New Yorkers of the time were a bit more wary. At the time it was the only bridge spanning the East River, connecting the separate cities of Brooklyn and New York, and many doubted that a bridge that large could hold. This fear is what may have prompted a stampede a week after the Brooklyn Bridge opened, on May 30. The New York Times wrote that a woman tripped and fell on the steps up to the bridge, prompting another woman to scream and crowds to push forward. Then, panic: “Those following were in turn pushed over and in a moment the narrow stairway was choked with human beings, piled one on top of the other, who were being crushed to death. In a few minutes, 12 persons were killed, 7 injured so seriously that their lives are despaired of, and 28 others more or less severely wounded.” Earlier that year, showman and circus founder P.T. Barnum had suggested marching his elephants, led by his most famous one, Jumbo, across the bridge in celebration of its opening. He was turned down, but with the public trust of the structure still wavering, a display of the Brooklyn Bridge’s strength seemed to be a good idea. On May 17, 1884, Barnum marched 21 elephants across the bridge, along with 17 camels. The animals made it across just fine, proving that the bridge was steady. At the time it opened, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and it lives on today as one of New York’s finest landmarks.

Brooklyn Bridge, pre-1894. On May 24, 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge officially opened to traffic. The massive celebration brought more than 50,000 people to the bridge (according to contemporary accounts). Some of the distinguished guests included President Chester A. Arthur, New York Governor Grover Cleveland, and Emily Roebling, the wife of the bridge’s main engineer, Washington Roebling. Cannon fire, live bands, and a fireworks display marked the festive occasion. The New York Times wrote: "The opening of the bridge was decidedly Brooklyn’s celebration. New York’s participation in it was meager, save as to the crowd which thronged her streets.” Completed after 13 years of construction, $15 million, and the death of one engineer and the debilitation of another, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world (until 1903 when 4.5 more feet gave the Williamsburg Bridge the title).

This trompe l'oeil conceals what author Glenn Palmer-Smith called a "twentieth-century utilitarian intrusion," a Con Edison substation. Artist Richard Haas was commissioned by both energy company and City Walls Inc. to paint this Landmarks Commission-approved mural depicting a revivalist Greek facade with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. The real bridge is, of course, blocked by the building.

Tin Building Pier 17 at South Street between Fulton and Beekman Streets Berlin Construction Co., 1907; reconstruction: Wank Adams Slavin Associates 1995; reconstruction: SHoP Architects, 2016- The Tin Building site hosted the Fulton Fish Market from its inception in 1835, originally housed in a small wooden shed, which was rebuilt in 1848. In 1869, the Fulton Fishmongers Association constructed a more permanent building, though still made of wood. That structure was moved to Pier 18 in 1894 (since demolished), and the Tin Building was constructed on the site in 1907. Modeled after the 1869 building, the neo-Classical design of the structure consists of a corrugated metal façade with decorative two-story sheet metal pilasters. The building was largely destroyed by fire in 1995, but was reconstructed by Wank Adams Slavin Associates. In 2005, the Fulton Fish Market, which occupied both the Tin Building and the New Market Building, moved to Hunts Point in The Bronx, where it continues to operate today. In 2016, the Tin Building will be rehabilitated into a seafood-themed market. HHC plans to relocate and reconstruct the building about 18 feet southeast of its current location as part of its Pier 17 revitalization. SHoP Architects plans to restore historic features that disappeared in the 1995 fire and repair damage sustained during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Tin Building is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Fulton Ferry Fireboat House newly painted, circa 1975. Originally called the Marine Fire Boat Station, this wood-frame building and attached tower was built in 1926 for the New York City Fire Department’s Marine Company 7. It was used to hang and dry fire hoses. By the 1960s the Fire Department no longer had use for the building. It was empty and derelict for a number of years until the National Maritime Museum moved in, in 1976. They would move out six years later under pressure from Brooklyn government officials who wanted to open up the building to commercial use. Today it houses Ample Hills.

Written By Deborah Tint This story examines the Fulton Ferry House that once stood where Old Fulton Street met the water’s edge in Brooklyn Heights, one in a series of ferry buildings on that site. This story can be read in its original format here.

"Manhattan’s major waterfront area in the late nineteenth century was located in the Fourth Ward, a district that formed an apron around the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1885, the Fourth Ward contained 30 acres of tenements that housed around 17,000 people. The area had been awash with cheap groceries, rat pits, and stale beer dives for years, and due to the growing population of transient sailors, prostitute traffic thickened exponentially; at this time in New York history, the Fourth Ward was, as historian Timothy Gilfoyle describes it, 'the most significant and the poorest waterfront zone of prostitution.' But the waterfront was also the centerpiece of an international trade city, signifying plurality and opacity. Significantly, the district appealed to no one ethnicity, class, race, or gender. Ethnically cohesive neighborhoods, or 'ghettoes,' would only emerge when jobs and industries became associated with specific ethnic groups–garments for the Jewish, cigars for the Bohemians, etc. But through the 1870s and ’80s, the East Side waterfront region of New York, though perhaps mainly Irish, was still composed of workers and unemployed groups that largely allied themselves with trade and the lifestyle of the wharves rather than with any particular language, religion, or national origin." For more on the Fourth Ward Waterfront, check out this article by Robert M. Dowling in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

South Street between Peck Slip and Dover Street, April 1, 1937. No. 45 Peck Slip is the last building on the left of the row. Towers in the background are (left to right): Farmer's Trust, 60 Wall Tower, Bank of Manhattan, and 116 John Street. The large chimney is the New York Steam Corporation at 130 John Street.