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 it would not open until 1883.

For more on the history of the Hamiloton Avenue Ferry see the entries:

How the Hamilton Avenue Ferry got started, 1846

How the Hamilton Avenue Ferry ended, 1942

For more images of the ferry terminal overtime see the related links below.

The stereo photograph is by George Bradford Brainerd, 1845-1887. He was a civil engineer who worked for the city of Brooklyn as Deputy Water Purveyor from 1869 to 1886. His book The Water Works of Brooklyn: A Historical and Descriptive Account of the Construction of the Works, and the Quantity, Quality and Cost of the Supply, 1873 is still available. Even more relevant to Red Hook is his 1868 report in The American Naturalist on the sedimentary layers under the Erie Basin. In addition to this work, a focused amateur photographer, captured many images of his Brooklyn home and the natural world.