Tony Wants Company on Brooklyn Waterfront Tour

by baad lamb

Last May, I jumped at the chance to take a Working Harbor tour deep into the heart of the Newtown Creek. It was easily one of the most fascinating and informative 3 hours I've ever spent. Those 600+ photos deserve a post of their own, but, alas... ( damn that full-time job!)

Since I'll have to miss this Tuesday's Working Harbor opportunity to tour the Brooklyn waterfront, I've "suggested" Tony go for me (and bring extra camera batteries). But he wants some company. So if you've got this Tuesday evening open, there's no better value for your $30. If an evening on the harbor on a yacht exploring the history and future of the working Brooklyn waterfront isn't its own incentive, whats wrong with you just think of those cool ocean breezes as a way to temporarily forget this heatwave.

Here's the details from the Working Harbor website:
Brooklyn Waterfront Tour featuring Brooklyn's Maritime Heritage and Future- This tour starts by going up the East River to the former Brooklyn Navy Yard, passing under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. The Navy Yard has three large graving docks and an active shipyard, as well as the home port of FDNY's fireboat division. We then travel south along the Brooklyn waterfront, passing the new Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Red Hook Container Terminal, Atlantic Basin, and Erie Basin, home of Hughes Brothers Barges and Reinauer Tugs. We continue into Gowanus Bay and along the Sunset Park waterfront, home of the former large Bush Terminals. We then cross over to the Statue of Liberty at sunset and pause for a moment to allow passengers to take photos before returning to Pier 16.


Dan Wiley is a Community Coordinator for the Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez in southwest Brooklyn, NY. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University in the Urban Design Studio. Working in the Congressional office since 2000, he has coordinated planning projects and initiatives spanning waterfront communities from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and downtown Brooklyn southwest to Red Hook, Gowanus and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Dan will talk about the changing face of the Brooklyn waterfront, the proposed plans for the future and take questions from the audience.


Do it! Ticket Link

I'm looking forward to Tony's pics, but I do still have a ton of photos I took over the years from various water taxis, trips to Governors Island, Open House New York, or aimless wandering on the land and street side of things:

Old cranes "cross swords" at Brooklyn Navy Yard (left)

Navy Yard, from Newtown Creek tour last year (right)

Preview a whole lot more after the jump...

Red Hook Container Terminal

The beauty of waterfront living

Crime of the century: This beautiful old warehouse was knocked down to help sell the development site. The old Revere Sugar factory, also here, was already destroyed at the time of this pic. 

Here is the site from the street after the warehouse was demolished

Erie Basin and  Hughes Brothers Barges

Beautiful, haunting, empty. Port Authority Brooklyn Grain Terminal

The massive Bush Terminal seen from across a new car storage lot

Another view of the Bush Terminal. Are those helipads on the roof?

Street between block-long Bush Terminal Buildings (left)

Typical courtyard between building wings (right)

Jersey City on the distant right, from Bush Terminal in Sunset Park