A hand-drawn map of Brooklyn from the 1770s, showing Red Hook, "the road to the new ferry" and distances from Flatbush.

In 1846 when Hamilton Avenue Ferry service to Manhattan started it was the only mass transit option to and from Red Hook, Brooklyn.   This was no longer the case in 1914, street cars and elevated subway lines crossed the Brooklyn Bridge,...

The Hamilton Avenue Ferry was established in 1846. It was run by the Union Ferry Company, who also ran the Fulton Ferry at that time. A major destination was a new upmarket cemetery. The ferry offered a “direct approach by way of the Gowanus...

Hamilton Avenue Ferry Terminal in Brooklyn as seen from Union Street, 1924. Clicking on the TAG   Hamilton Avenue Ferry   below will bring you to a list of related stories such as:   How the Hamilton Avenue Ferry got started,...

A stereoscopic view of the Hamilton Avenue Ferry house, 1877.  The ferry was one of the key means for both the working poor and the well-to-do to travel between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge had started in 1869 but...

Hamilton Avenue Ferry house in Red Hook with two horse-drawn wagons and several people in the foreground. Clicking on the TAG   Hamilton Avenue Ferry   below will bring you to a list of related stories such as:   How the Hamilton...