"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.