Atlantic Docks, 1888 Etching
The Atlantic Dock etched by Charles Adams Platt (1861-1933) in 1888. A three-masted schooner tied up to a pier dominates the left side of the image
War Department Map of Port Facilities - Red Hook, 1932
1932 map of the piers and port businesses from Baltic Street (now called Cobble Hill) moving south through Atlantic Basin around past the Erie Basin, for the War Department / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The map indicates the businesses that...
"Smallest Ship that Ever Crossed the Atlantic Ocean: Log of the Ship-Rigged Ingersoll Metallic Life-Boat." 1866
In 1866, two men and a dog from Red Hook, set sail in a metal life-boat rigged like a sailing ship. Captain Hudson and Mr. Fitch were out to prove the seaworthiness of the lifeboat , RED WHITE AND BLUE, designed by Brooklyn's Oliver Roland...
Brooklyn's Bonded Warehouses, 1872
Bonded warehouse are places were foreign imports can be stored or manipulated without the payment of duty or taxes. The government only gets a piece of the action (duty) if and when the goods are sold domestically. Under the watchful eyes...
Colonel Daniel Richards, Red Hook Visionary
Col. Daniel Richards was a visionary developer who set Red Hook on the path to becoming one of the world's major commercial ports. Inspired by the powerful economic effects resulting from the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, Richards moved from...
Atlantic Dock Riot: Irish v. Germans, April 17, 1846
The Atlantic Dock Company brought over workers from Germany to build the Atlantic Basin after the Irish workers who had begun the job demanded better pay. On April 15, 1846 newspapers reported on a riot between angry Irish and the newly...
Wrecks in Storm's Wake, 1896
Wrecks in Storm's Wake Great Damage Wrought All Along the Coast .... Tremendous damage was wrought all along the coast from Cape May to Boston by the northeast gale, which continued yesterday with unabated fury. .... Cellars and Sewers Flooded. .......
Picturesque Blaze at Daybreak on the Atlantic Dock, 1900
On September 22, 1900, a fire destroyed $100,000 worth of property in a warehouse and grain elevator. The fire destroyed one warehouse that had been rebuilt after another fire just three months before. The Red Hook Fire Department fought the blaze,...
American Turtle Submarine 1776 & 2009
The AMERICAN TURTLE was the first submarine used in war. It was in 1776, not far from Red Hook. Invented by David Bushnell, the one-man hand-propelled craft was designed to attach an underwater time bomb to an enemy vessel. On a...
The Potato King, 1889
Mr. Stewart is one of the largest produce merchants at the Atlantic Basin. He was also predominant at the Washington Market in Manhattan. His produce boats provided seed potatoes to the farmers of Long Island, from the India Wharf and Central Pier.