Atlantic and Erie Basins

The Atlantic and Erie basins, built in 1841 and 1864 respectively, demonstrate the dominance of the Brooklyn harbor in the years before World War II. Today, they remain as remnants of New York’s industrial history as well providing wonderful views and fishing spots in the Red Hook community.

Overview

The Atlantic and Erie basins were feats of engineering that increased the capacity of New York Harbor and established the predominance of the Brooklyn waterfront in shipping.

The Atlantic Basin was proposed and planned by businessman Colonel Daniel Richards in 1839, who owned the basin site on Red Hook Island fronting the Buttermilk Channel. (The neighborhood now called Red Hook had been a 50-acre island separated from the mainland by a creek, until the creek and many of its marshes were filled in with land from the highlands that are now Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill.) The Atlantic Basin was built on “shoal water land,” an area with extremely shallow water at low tide, which had to be dredged to accommodate ships that drew up to 20 feet. The basin kept the water level constant inside its walls despite tidal fluctuations. Finished in 1841, it became a forty-acre refuge for ships, and the dredged land was used to create solid land over the former marshes. The first warehouse serving the basin opened in 1844.

The Atlantic Basin became part of a shoreline shaped by industry. It was small in comparison to the later Erie Basin–a breakwater that reaches to 2500 feet. Built by William Beard beginning in the 1850s, the Erie Basin was located just around the bend from the Atlantic Basin, jutting into the Gowanus Bay. It protected 135 acres of docking space, and after it opened in 1864, it became one of the most important ports for grain, among other things, in the world. It also included several ship repair facilities.

Both Brooklyn basins fell into disuse in the years after the Second World War, as New York’s shipping industry failed to respond to changing technology and update facilities. Walking along the Erie Basin’s breakwater today is a great opportunity to get out into the harbor. It is also a spot where many people fish, and it has spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty, Governor’s Island, and lower Manhattan, as well as offering a new perspective on the shore of Red Hook, where the beautiful old brick pier sheds at Van Brunt Street are being reused for galleries and office space.

The Brooklyn Waterfront and the Port of New York

During the 19th century, as the Port of New York was becoming the world’s busiest, the Atlantic and Erie basins helped the Brooklyn waterfront steal the limelight from Manhattan’s shores. The massive shipments of grain and other goods that passed through these basins were made possible by two revolutions in shipping–steamships and the Erie Canal.

By 1807 steam powered ships were increasing the traffic and the sheer amount of goods going through New York Harbor. The port grew exponentially. At the same time, Americans moved westward for farmland, to places without a waterborne connection to New York. For the harbor to retain its primacy New York needed a connection to the soil-rich Midwestern states. Mayor DeWitt Clinton proposed the Erie Canal, and it opened triumphantly in 1825. Steamships traversed the route from Buffalo to Albany and down the Hudson River, taking hold of trade that might otherwise have gone down the Mississippi. New York’s harbor was thus able to retain its status as the country spread.

Despite this dominance, New York did not have a cohesive plan for its waterfront at the time. It established no municipal body of oversight until the Department of Docks was created in 1870. As shipping boomed in the mid-1800s, private contractors built whatever piers, wharves, and terminals they could manage. Planning was individual to each project and its steward. The Atlantic and Erie basins were part of this trend–effectively transferring much of the city’s port business to Brooklyn through the efforts of two individuals.

Other sites that contributed to the importance of the Brooklyn waterfront during this period include the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which reached an employment rate of 18,000 by 1918. Two enormous storage complexes also expanded Brooklyn’s capacity during the pre-World War II era: Bush Terminal, begun in 1890 and eventually encompassing 200 acres of waterfront land; and the Brooklyn Army Terminal, whose warehouses on 97 acres were completed in 1919.

The Brooklyn waterfront continued to thrive through World War II. In the postwar years, however, automation and new technologies, along with corruption and disputes over control of resources, led to a rapid decline in New York’s shipping industry. The failure to adapt to the new container-based approach to shipping, in particular, helped shift port activity to New Jersey where new facilities were being constructed. As a result, a longstanding industry that helped shaped the landscape of the city’s waterfront virtually disappeared, leaving abandoned remains like the Atlantic and Erie basins.