West 130th Street ferry, with service to points in New Jersey, ca. 1915.

The West Harlem Piers sit at a low point between the bluffs of Morningside and Washington Heights, where Manhattan’s inhabitants have long accessed the waters of the Hudson River.

In the early 1800s, Manhattan’s merchant class — and those seeking a more bucolic life — began to build country homes overlooking the Hudson River. By 1808, ferry service connected the new village of Manhattanville to New Jersey.

A century later, Irving Underhill’s photo includes placards advertising services to Newark, Englewood, Paterson, Rutherford, Edgewater, Hackensack, Leonia, Fort Lee, and Tenafly. Ferry service was discontinued in 1965 when the pier was demolished.