“Greenpoint Avenue, west from West Street. In the foreground, is the City of New York Municipal Ferry to 23rd Street, Manhattan. March 1929.”

In 1852, Neziah Bliss established a ferry between Manhattan’s 10th and 23rd Streets and the East River terminus of Greenpoint Avenue. Bliss, a prominent landowner, was responsible for pushing Greenpoint’s 19th century commercial development with infrastructure projects including the East River ferry and the Ravenswood turnpike (today’s Franklin Street).

Public radio station WNYC purchased the former ferry terminal site in 1935, and built two AM broadcast antennae. In 1990, WNYC moved their transmitters to New Jersey, leaving the waterfront site vacant until 2012, when it was redeveloped as a public park.