formerly called the walled city on account of the formidable rows of warehouses that lined
its waterfront the borough of brooklyn was a key part of new york city's trade industry
with numerous peers and warehouses sending and receiving trade goods from all over the world
every single day its waterfront was once the very picture of commerce seeing millions of commuters
workers and everyone in between yet with the fall of the ferry industry
many of the piers and warehouses would be torn down or outright abandoned in the wake of the
advancements in subway and automobile transit today we discover what remains
of brooklyn's forgotten pierce i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
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to set the stage for the story of brooklyn's peers and warehouses let's take a trip back to
the turn of the 19th century commerce and trade in brooklyn reached new heights in 1814 thanks to
robert fulton's steam-powered fulton ferry company it ushered in a new revolutionized way of travel
and trade between brooklyn and manhattan and further strengthened the connection between those
two boroughs by the middle of the 19th and 20th centuries the brooklyn waterfront was a bustling
waterfront and commercial hub every day its busy ports were filled with thousands of workers
laboring on ships piers and many warehouses and factories built along the waterfront one brooklyn
reporter had this to say about the scene men are shouting steam whistles are screaming and great
derricks are groaning as they slowly hoist bales and boxes from the holds of some great ships and
then swing them around to be deposited on the dock freight came in from all around the world filled
with a vast variety of cargo from industrial goods to exotic animals 1850 brought railroad
lines to the fulton ferry landing followed by the construction of many massive warehouses
made of bricks such as the empire stores warehouse which we will discuss later as well as numerous
smaller fringe piers located at the end of old fulton street the fulton ferry landing
marked the location of the very first ferry service running between brooklyn and manhattan
in 1642. interestingly the original ferry service was mentioned in walt whitman's famous poem
crossing brooklyn ferry as such it is by far one of the borough's most historic sites and serves
as a reminder of how far the trade and transport industry has come over the years the fulton ferry
itself wasn't just a regular service ferry in fact it provided steam vessels between the two boroughs
of manhattan and brooklyn the passage took around 12 to 20 minutes connecting those in brooklyn to
commute to manhattan every day as brooklyn and manhattan became more and more connected
brooklyn's population grew rapidly rising incredibly from 1603 in 1796 to 186 000 in 1865
and out of that number 35 000 residents used the ferry daily as the population increased businesses
along the brooklyn waterfront thrived russell granger writing from whitman's brooklyn states
that quote coleyard's hotels oyster houses an iron foundry a marble yard a wood yard a flower mill an
ice house banks and distilleries provided the ancillary businesses to make the fulton landing
one of the most thriving ports on the eastern seaboard before the civil war the fulton ferry
slowly but surely reduced its fare to one cent between 1842 and 1850 to bankrupt its competitors
however once its competitor was successfully eliminated and their rights purchased by the
fulton ferry it doubled its rates to two cents this sudden spike caused understandable amounts of
outrage in new yorkers who depended on that ferry to commute every day but could no longer afford
the travel cost which was a reported additional 10 of a typical workers salary after it was raised
the fulton fairy house once stood in a series of ferry buildings along the waterfront bordering
a bustling commerce hub filled with horse car lines and various retail and wholesale stores
other piers included pier 3 which was previously occupied by a lumber and building supply company
called strober brothers lumber as well as pier 6 one of brooklyn's coffee ports if one were to
take a walk along the docks they would see many large rows of storage houses all filled with raw
coffee interestingly many reported that the aroma of raw coffee was actually awful to constantly
be around empire stores comprised a series of historic warehouses built along the waterfront
in the late 1800s they were an essential part of brooklyn's extensive line of warehouses
in the shoreline receiving goods from all over the world then we have the seven warehouses which
were built between 1868 and 1885 sitting in the northern section of brooklyn bridge park they were
made up of thick red brick walls on the outside and chist walls on the inside to keep it cool
and dark for storing perishables these warehouses house a wide variety of goods ranging from sugar
to molasses animal hides rubber and wool though they were mostly known for their coffees
after all brooklyn was known as america's coffee capital this title came from the fact that in the
19th and 20th centuries most of the coffee shipped to america arrived through new york's harbor the
arbuckle brothers were two significant pioneers of the coffee industry initially operating a complex
of coffee production facilities in the same area and eventually acquiring the empire stores
so in a nutshell during the early years the rich variety of goods was a testament to the melting
pot of trade that new york city had grown into over the years however the success of brooklyn's
waterfront would not last forever three pinnacle moments most certainly marked the beginning
of the end of this great waterfront first was the opening of the brooklyn bridge in 1883
then the williamsburg bridge in 1903 and finally the manhattan bridge in 1909. these bridges all
struck decisive blows against the ferry industry they allowed continuous transport of both people
and goods and while this newfound efficiency was good news for busy commuters it marked
the beginning of the end for the age of fairies further improvements in transit also came about
with the bmt and irt subway tunnels that cross under the river in 1908 bypassing the needs for
ferries altogether but again i need to stress this was a good thing because those ferries
were incredibly busy to the point that they were fast approaching their limits from then on fairies
gradually began to go out of business along with them much of the brooklyn waterfront fell into
the early stages of neglect in the 1950s many of the narrow finger piers along the waterfront
were replaced with larger wider piers that could accommodate much larger ships and cargo while this
gave the area more traffic and staved off the inevitable for a time trade and transportation
technology continued to evolve eventually reaching a point where the brooklyn waterfront couldn't
keep up at this time many peers began to fall into outright disrepair some entirely abandoned to
times ravage in the coming years then by the 1970s this area the brooklyn waterfront was referred to
by most as a quote barren wasteland along new york city's waterfront in 1984 port authority officials
ceased cargo shipping operations instead deciding to sell the piers for commercial development
this sparked a new idea that the peers well warren were incredibly valuable as a resource
members of the community banded together to revitalize the brooklyn waterfront as a
public use area however for over a decade this plan remained up in the air while governor mario
cuomo initially expressed a great deal of support for the development project he lost his late
re-election creating a significant setback to the development project until 1998 when the brooklyn
borough president howard golden officially established the local development corporation
it consisted of 15 community members who later elected president joanne witty the ldc then
oversaw a planning process for the vacant piers that took roughly a year even the development
planning faced an incredible challenge for those on the committee and its supporters however these
efforts were fruitful in the end today many of the original piers and parts of the 85 acre long
sustainable park have been redeveloped and are simply beautiful but the story of brooklyn's
peers is far from over some remnants remain as they were so many years ago while others have
been given new life and revitalized in the modern age thanks to renewed interest in the waterfront
and a vibrant history in fact in 2011 the east river ferry started service with stops
along the manhattan queens and brooklyn waterfront stopping at brooklyn bridge parks pier 1 near
fulton ferry landing so now it's time to see what remains of these forgotten piers after the
brooklyn bridge opened in 1883 the fulton ferry landing's popularity was dealt a considerable blow
and after the ferry service was rendered all but obsolete in the coming years the ferry
ceased operation in 1929 its terminal remained until it was severely damaged the following year
in a massive fire on october the 8th 1925 but in a sense it's still with us you see in 1997 the
terminal was refurbished and reopened to visitors and it remains incredibly popular with tourists
and locals alike its railings were custom designed with marine themes and walt whitman's famous
crossing brooklyn fairy poem is also ever present the pure deck is embedded with bronze reliefs that
depict various local historical scenes and ferry service returned to manhattan in 2006 around
the same time the historic tobacco warehouse the saint anne's warehouse and the max family garden
are all sites to behold on pier 3 the lumber company buildings were replaced by 4.6 acres of
both natural and recreational space that makes use of them in an interesting and charismatic way for
example its promenade was created from the steel frame of one of the piers former warehouses and
its original concrete deck was left exposed during construction the pier's original wooden piles were
reinforced with rebar and concrete pumped into fiberglass forms installed in the surrounding
areas its existing sea walls were removed and replaced on the adjacent shoreline while the
deck connecting the pier to the greenway was cut out and replaced with two concrete bridges instead
to build the base it even has an interactive labyrinth garden movable furniture and a walk-in
kaleidoscope and on pier 6 the huts used for coffee storage have been replaced with
attractions such as the water lab sandbox village and slide mountain many other warehouses were
torn down to make space for the brooklyn queens expressway and the brooklyn heights promenade but
what about those famous empire stores well they were far from exempt from decay abandoned
in the 1960s they remained closed for decades until being redeveloped and reopened in 2016
after multiple failed development attempts today it remains one of the last relics of the brooklyn
waterfront's history as a shipping hub granted it has taken on something of a new form now filled
with office and retail space as well as various public amenities such as restaurants last but not
least is one of the lesser known remains the old pier number one part of the first section of the
park to open to the public in 2010 it remains the way it has been frozen in time ever since
its decline at the turn of the century as the docks and warehouses all around it began to close
the surface of the pier was eventually pulled up leaving behind hundreds of short stumps that stand
out by a few feet ominously over the waters of the east river as remnants of a time that once was
in total the peers of the brooklyn bridge park attract over 5 million visitors every single year
speaking to the fact that even after the waterfront's time as a bustling commerce port hub
has long since passed its story is far from over so if you'd like for me to cover more stories
from brooklyn hit that subscribe button check out our new york history playlist and don't forget to
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