Giant Timber Raft, 1888

By The Red Hook WaterStories team

A giant timber raft, 595 feet long and 55 feet wide, containing 22,000 ‘sticks’ (logs) was floated from the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia to the Erie Basin, Brooklyn, in 1888. An experiment in cost savings, it was calculated that if the wood was transported following the standard method of the day it would have taken 44 schooners.

Date:

1888

Item Relations

Item: Timber Scavengers & the Gentrification of Red Hook Point, 1851 is related to This Item
Item: Red Hook Flats has Hermit on Mystery Ship, 1931 is related to This Item
Item: John F. McKenna: Lumber, ca. 1920 is related to This Item

Related Tour

Sources:

  • "The Big Timber Raft", The Manufacturer and Builder Volume 0020 Issue 9. September 1888. Found in: Making of America (digital archive)

    “A Remarkable Raft” Scientific American. v. 58-59 September 1, 1888. Google Books.  (Accessed 2016)

    See Also:
    Chris Baer, "This was then: The Joggins.  It was simply enormous and had no steering." MV TIMES, July 10, 2017 (Accessed 4/2022)

Published on Jun 26, 2016. Last updated on Apr 11, 2022.

Share this Item