Atlantic Dock by way of "Paddies" and "Steam Paddies" is well under way, 1845
Construction of The Atlantic Dock - a massive, man-made harbor for all manor of cargo ships, from deep water vessels to canal boats, began on June 3, 1841.
Less than four years later, in their November 25, 1845 edition, the New York Express, wrote a glowing article about its success: "NO person who has not visited the spot, can have the slightest idea of the rapid advance of Brooklyn."
The Express noted that when the Atlantic Dock was first proposed the "project was thought to be wild and visionary. It was believed to be at least half a century in advance of the wants and necessities of the great city, and that the projectors, like those who had gene before them, would be utterly ruined. To construct a basin out from the main land, and to recover from the sea, and to fill up several hundred acres of land on which to build a commercial city, was not supposed to be needed, but seemed impossible." By 1845 The Express declared "there is no longer a doubt of the ultimate success of the enterprise."
The Express credits the "Steam Paddy" (aka the steam powered shovel) with making the monumental task of moving a mountain of earth possible. The Irish made up high percentage of the physical laborers in New York in the early 1840s, and the Atlantic Dock project was no exception. The steam shovel was dubbed the "Steam Paddy" because it was used to do much of the same digging work. (In 1846 the Irish laborers working on the Atlantic Dock would demand better pay - and be replaced by imported German workers.)
The newspaper described how a hill was leveled to make waterfront landfill: "An inclined rail is laid from Gowanus Hill, a distance of about half a mile ; on this is laid a train of cars, which being loaded by “Paddies,” by their own weight run in a very few minutes to the low ground, where the earth is deposited.
On top of the newly created dry land warehouses "built of Kips Bay Granite, placed on pillars which can never settle or decay" quickly went up. By1845 there were around fifty all designed to be fireproof with two feet thick walls, running one hundred feet long.
Here is the full text of "GREAT AND EXTRAORDINARY IMPROVEMENTS in SOUTH BROOKLYN," The New York Express, November 25, 1845
GREAT AND EXTRAORDINARY IMPROVEMENTS in SOUTH BROOKLYN.—NO person who has not visited the spot, can have the slightest idea of the rapid advance of Brooklyn. Within a few years, vis: 1841, the Atlantic Dock has been started. The project was thought to be wild and visionary. It was believed to be at least half a century in advance of the wants and necessities of the great city, and that the projectors, like those who had gene before them, would be utterly ruined. To construct a basin out from the main land, and to recover from the sea, and to fill up several hundred acres of land on which to build a commercial city, was not supposed to be needed, but seemed impossible. For the first two years the projectors did encounter great difficulties and embarrassments, and at times disappointment appeared inevitable. Perseverance, however, has at last prevailed, a change of times has taken place, confidence, if not entirely, has so far been sustained, that there is no longer a doubt of the ultimate success of the enterprise. At the present time the work is progressing in a most extraordinary degree. By the aid of steam, difficulties have been overcome that but for this power would have been insurmountable.
With the aid of the Railroad and “Steam Paddy” an amount of work is performed that is truly surprising. An inclined rail is laid from Gowanus Hill, a distance of about half a mile ; on this is laid a train of cars, which being loaded by “Paddies,” by their own weight run in a very few minutes to the low ground, where the earth is deposited. Thus a body of solid earth is removed from a great distance by the aid of steam, which it would require thousands of carts to accomplish ; and this, too, in a very short time. A water lot of twenty-five by one hundred feet is filled in with earth, which is taken up at this distance with a dispatch altogether unparalleled. Acres of water, from five to twenty-five feet in depth are filled up with solid earth with such ease and dispatch as to be truly surprising. Shakespeare’s Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane is more than equaled by Gowanus Heights descending to the Atlantic Dock. On the spot which, but one or two years since, was a portion of our harbor, are now built the largest and most spacious stores in this country. They are not only erected, but are filled with the most valuable goods. Whole blocks of dwellings are also going up, almost with the rapidity of magic. The excavation of the basin commenced in 1841, and with an interruption of two years, has proceeded to the present time.
The piers and bulkheads are four and half feet above an ordinary high tide. The stores, now some fifty in number, are all fire proof, with walls two feet thick, one hundred feet deep, built of Kips Bay Granite, placed on pillars which can never settle or decay. The space is sufficient for the discharge of seventy five ships of the largest size, and space within sufficiently capable to accommodate five hundred more of sea and river craft. As a harbor for ships, steamboats, canal or river craft, it affords every security either from storms, sea currents or ice. This basin covers a surface of fifty two acres. As Wall street is the great centre of business, its distance is only the same as that of the foot of Canal street, and Corker’s Hook on the East River.
When Mayor Clark laid before the Corporation his great project for an Extension Dock, on the North River, it was admitted to be a most admirable plan, but its cost was considered too great for the city authorities to encounter. Had it been undertaken there is no doubt it would have not only been successful but would, by this time, have afforded a revenue for the city. A company of individuals have, in the construction of this dock, undertaken and performed what the city failed to accomplish. The increase of population since 1825, the period when the Erie Canal was completed, has surpassed every calculation. The increase of the city, in that time has been 125 per cent, and that of Brooklyn 384 per cent. The whole number in the city and vicinity is full half a million, and the prospect of a continued increase is as great as ever. The amount of tonnage arriving here is 150 per cent, greater than it was in 1810, and is larger than any other city in the world, London only excepted. The amount of merchandize annually landed and unladen is estimated to be over $120,000,000. The number of vessels in port in a busy season, exclusive of steamboats and small craft, is more than 800. The delay that is often experienced, before vessels can find berths to lay in, is frequently for a week or ten days. The great increase in steam tow boats and propellers is such as to require additional facilities.
It is a singular fact that, with the extraordinary increase of docks and wharves, extending from the Battery, along the line of the East river, to Bellevue on the North river to Fortieth street, and the whole of the Brooklyn and a portion of the Jersey and Staten Island shores, extending, in length, some ten or twelve miles, there are not now sufficient accommodations for foreign vessels, coasting and river craft, and canal boats ; and a large and spacious as the Atlantic Dock is, and the time is not very far distant when other docks, similar to that projected by Mayor Clark will be as much needed as the Atlantic Dick now is. The distance of this dock would seem, by some, to be an objection, It is, however less than 1 ½ miles from Wall street. The West India and other docks of the River Thames are 3 ½ miles from the London Exchange. The facilities of warehousing, heavy goods are very great, - cotton, lead, iron, dyewoods, hides, wool, &c, can all be discharged and taken into store without the expense of carting.
