By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Ichaboe, a small island off the coast of Nambia, once towered high with mounds of seabird guano - an excellent fertilizer. Large scale exporting of the “white gold” began in 1843 and for a few years 450 ships were streaming to and from the...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
William Perris was a first in producing fire insurance maps for Brooklyn. The Great fires in 1835 and 1845 that destroyed large sections of the New York City made it clear to insurers the utility of knowing what buildings were made of and what...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Construction of The Atlantic Dock - a massive, man-made harbor for deep water ships, began on June 3, 1841. The erection of stout stone warehouses and towering grain elevators that could handle products coming down the Erie Canal began in...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. Until it was repealed in 1943, Chinese sailors were not allowed ashore. Ships that let the sailors leave could be fined $500 per person....
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Charles Debois was charged, in 1859, with attacking Mary Ann Baker while she was sleeping in her winter home, a canal boat docked in Atlantic Basin. The greater charge of rape was dropped. Complete text of article: New York NY Evening Express...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In the latter half of the 1800s, grain was king in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Boats loaded with grain would float down the Erie Canal, then down the Hudson River to the grain storehouses of Atlantic Basin, and later, in an even bigger way, Erie...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Morning Courier and New York Enquirer March 30, 1852 Picked up by a boat in the Atlantic Dock Basin, a pig in a drowning state. Owner can have the same by identifying property and paying expenses
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The construction of the Atlantic Dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn was substantially completed by the beginning of 1848. The N.Y. Courier and Enquirer, reported that they have over three thousand feet of docking space and "have constructed one of the...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
When the Steamer Uranium, from Rotterdam, via Halifax docked at Atlantic Basin's Pier 38 in Red Hook, all the talk was about love. Love was what people were talking about when the Steamer Uranium docked at Pier 38, Atlantic Basin, Red Hook, in...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Red Hook was feasting on mackerel, late October of 1901. A school of the fish reportedly chased by bluefish and porpoises had found their way into Atlantic Basin. Fishermen lined the piers, catching the mackerel with makeshift poles and any kind of...
