Maps showing the current property lines of IKEA, Thor Equities, and the Erie Basin Bargeport in the Erie Basin.

We include these to show how there can be private property under water in general, and that the Erie Basin waterspace is not a public waterway. We make this point since some users of human-powered boats have claimed this is a public waterway. Erie Basin is a manmade space, and all the land underwater is privately owned.

The boundaries of private property underwater in Red Hook usually relate to how far a man-made pier stuck out into the water, with the owner of the land then owning the land under water out to the pier headline (the end of the pier). There is also often property underwater owned alongside the pier; that would be the berth space for boats, eg the space where the boats would float when tied up to the pier. For example, part of the Valentino Park waterspace is owned by private property owners on either side, corresponding to historic berthspace relating to prior maritime uses on site.