The Brooklyn Bridge is a suspended by four main steel wire cables. It became the first major bridge of its kind when it opened for service in May 1883 and it's unique design remains essentially the same today. The concept of suspending a bridge with…

The RMS TITANIC fatally struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, tragically cutting short her maiden voyage. Survivors were rescued and brought to New York by the SS CAPATHIA. Also on board were 12 or 13 of the Titanic’s lifeboats.Titanic's wooden boats…

Ramberg Iron Workspaid $650,000 to the receivers of the Atlantic Dock Company for eight and three quarter acres fronting the Buttermilk Channel at the foot of Coffey, Dykman, Sullivan and Wolcott Streets in 1918. The site was within the free…

In the summer of 1850, an African-American woman was abducted and brought to Red Hook Point - just below the Atlantic Dock - to be put on a schooner and brought to a Southern slave state. The captors told suspicious workers in the area that the woman…

Joe Ruggiero, aka “Joey Chips” since he always showed up at a party with a bag of chips, was a WWII vet who was still driving in 2016 at the time of this interview. He passed in early 2024.He was the embodiment of the Greatest Generation.He served as…

Sometime before 1689, Stephanus Van Cortlandt (d. 1700) erected a water-powered mill on his property, roughly at the corner of present day Dikeman and Van Brunt Streets. "The mill-pond, which was formed by damming off the creeks and natural ponds in…

At the end of the 1800s, New York City docked floating pools, known as baths, along the Brooklyn water front to provide relief from the summer heat.They were protected spaces to swim in the river. Bath No. 4 was docked at the foot of Conover…

In the summer of 1929, Olaf the cat, mascot of the brand new South American freight and passenger ship, SUD AMERICANA, was swept overboard during a storm. Captain Bjor Boettger and his Norwegian crew immediately went into action. Aside from just…

Divine Burtis, Jr, born in 1802 near Huntington Long Island and died in Brooklyn on October 7, 1896 a respected ship builder. He is buried in Greeenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.In the historical record, there a bit of inconsistency as to whether Burtis…

Scroll to the bottom to hear PortSide's interview with Sunny Balzano.Sunny Balzano was the beloved owner of a legendary bar, some 90 years old, which became known as Sunny’s. He died March 10, 2016 which prompted an outpouring of grief, tributes,…

Night herons live around the Red Hook shoreline. PortSide staff have seen them in Erie Basin (this photo is in the O'Connell's marina), Atlantic Basin, and the Red Hook Container Terminal. As their name implies, they usually fish at night, and…

Until 2007, a towering, distintive icon of Red Hook was here and was so visible across the harbor that captain's used it as a navigation aid: the conical silo of the sugar refinery. The entire refinery was demolished that year, levelling an…

John F. McKenna was a wholesaler and retailer of lumber for shipyards, industry, and heavy construction. His office was at 74 Beard Street and his depot in the Erie Basin.Lumber was a major Red Hook business, ships filled with it, and large rafts…

Labor strikes by shipyard workers, maritime workers, and many others were common in the years following WWII. In 1949, TheBrooklyn Eagle reported on a union walkout at the Todd Shipyard in Erie Basin, after eight riggers were fired for refusing to do…

Images of squatters shacks near Otsego, Columbia, Beard and Van Dyke Streets, taken October 1934 and May 1935 by photographer P. L. Sperr.

No man ever, perhaps, got so much the best of old Beard as did Louis Heineman, the housemover of the Twelfth ward” (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 19, 1891)When Louis Heineman died in 1904, he was reportedly 104 years old, and likely the oldest man…

Columbia Street, south from Halleck Street to Gowanus Canal, showing the New York State Canal Terminal Grain Elevator on the left. August 31, 1934. P. L. Sperr.

In 1921, the Brooklyn Spar Company advertised in The Marine Journal that it sold wooden masts and posts for derricks and flag poles, which the company made at its waterfront facility at the foot of Columbia Street. In O.R. Pilat's 1929 article,…

572 Columbia Street, at, adjoining and south of the S.W. corner of Sigourney Street. Also seen is 49 Sigourney Street, at, adjoining and west of the S.W. corner of Columbia Street. The buildings concerned are frame. This lot is now the site of Red…

560 Columbia Street, west side, between Bay and Sigourney Streets. A view of a home built frame shack typical in this neighborhood. June 6, 1931. P. L. Sperr.

In 1922, New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, a strong advocate for expanding the subways, held public hearings on the topic. George T. McQuade of Coastwise Lumber & Supply Co. supported a line that would run down Hicks and Lorraine Streets in Red…

105-7 Lorraine Street, north side, between Hicks and Henry Streets. In the background are houses on Bush Street.

A fair portion of today’s Red Hook was once water. An 1887 article in the Brook Eagle marvels that Henry and neighboring streets have been extended nearly half a mile in ten years. Marshes with knee-high water, or deeper, were being systematically…

PS 27 is shown in 1938, then again 1939 with a new addition under construction. The view is the north side of Huntington Street, east from Columbia Street. The low building in the center background, seen across the lot, is Public School No.…

Two views of the (R.C.) Church of the Visitation. The parish of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in 1854 under the leadership ofBishop John Loughlin. According to the parish's website their first church, built in 1855, was…