Waterfront - Turnstile Tours

In Service to Seafarers from Titanic to Today: Seamen’s Church Institute | Episode 103

The day that news of the Titanic’s sinking reached New York, dignitaries assembled at 25 South Street on the tip of Lower Manhattan to lay the cornerstone. That building would …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Lighter Life with David Sharps of the Waterfront Museum | Episode 102

The Lehigh Valley No. 79 covered barge shuttled cargo around New York Harbor from 1914 until sometime around the mid-1970s. David Sharps rescued this wooden barge in 1985, digging it …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Rocking The Boat: Changing Lives on the Bronx River | Episode 93

The Whitehall skiff, a style of boat developed in New York 200 years ago, has been changing the lives of teens in the Bronx for the last 20 years at …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Waterfront Workers: Finding the Harkins Family with Julie Golia | Episode 88

The waterfront has long been the epicenter of Brooklyn’s economic and cultural life, yet the stories of ordinary workers in the once-bustling piers and factories can be difficult to locate. …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Flash and Clang: Aids to Navigation with the Historic Lighthouse Tender Lilac | Episode 85

Unlock the mystery of maritime navigation with Mary Habstritt of the Lilac Preservation Project. At night many of our waterways become constellations of flashing lights. These Aids to Navigation (or …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Exploring the Erie Canal with Will Van Dorp | Episode 78

Two hundred years ago New York State was in the midst of digging a canal to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie, a civil engineering project that would transform …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Fleet Week New York, Past and Present | Episode 71

For just the second time in 33 years, Fleet Week New York has been cancelled this year, so instead, we will look back at Fleet Weeks and naval reviews held …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

“Mind the Light, Kate”: New York’s Most Famous Lighthouse Keeper with the Noble Maritime Collection | Episode 70

“Mind the Light, Kate.” From 1890 to 1919, Kate Walker honored this request from her dying husband as he was taken from their home, the lighthouse on Robbins Reef just …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Before Rosie: Women at the Brooklyn Navy Yard pre-World War II | Episode 59

Before the celebrated images of “Rosie the Riveter” and “Winnie the Welder,” women served in a variety of roles at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in uniform and as civilian workers. …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Virtual Programs
Waterfront
World War I

Hospital Ships and Shipwright Tools: Exploring Collections of the South Street Seaport Museum | Episode 56

Dive into the collections of South Street Seaport Museum with Director of Collections Martina Caruso, who will share some of the highlights among the museum’s 28,000+ artifacts and 55,000+ archival materials that …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Virtual Programs
Waterfront
World War I
World War II

Dredging the Past and Present of the Gowanus Canal | Episode 31

Best known today for its pollution and gentrification, the Gowanus Canal is an historic waterway that has seen war, industry, innovation, and reinvention play out along its banks. We will …

Architecture
Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Comfort at Sea: History of Hospital Ships in New York City

The hospital ship USNS Comfort is en route to New York City. One of just two hospital ships in the Navy fleet, it has been dispatched from Norfolk, while its …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Waterfront
World War I
World War II

Inventions of the Brooklyn Navy Yard | Episode 1

For over 200 years, the Brooklyn Navy Yard has been on the cutting edge of innovation, first as a leading shipyard for the US Navy, and today as a home …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Slavery and the Brooklyn Navy Yard

After nearly 12 years of leading tours at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, one of the most difficult questions we get – and almost always from young people – is this: …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Waterfront

Clayton Colefield and the Building of USS Missouri

They say a Navy ship has three birthdays: its keel-laying, its launching, and its commissioning. The World War II-era battleship USS Missouri has one more, its recommission in 1986 as part …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Shipspotting
Waterfront
World War II

Black and white photo of five naval officers standing on a large metal plate, one of them turning a long handle attached to a riveting machine.

Americal Division: Brooklyn Army Terminal Sends First US Troops to Pacific

Last week we looked at Operation Magnet, the scramble in the weeks after Pearl Harbor to move American forces into the European battle zone. Just one week after that, it …

Brooklyn Army Terminal
Shipspotting
Waterfront
World War II

Black and white photo of two soldiers walking up a gangplank onto a ship at dusk.

Brooklyn to Belfast: Red Bull Division Were First US Overseas Troops of World War II

On January 15, 1942, ships of convoy AT-10 left the Brooklyn Army Terminal to make the journey across the Atlantic. Aboard the transports USS Chateau Thierry and HMTS Strathaird were …

Brooklyn Army Terminal
Shipspotting
Waterfront
World War II

Black and white photo of a soldier waving from the gangplank of a ship with soldiers in the background.

What was the First Ship Built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard?

For the past two years, we have had the opportunity to work with third and fourth graders in the Brooklyn Historical Society’s CASA program. These young scholars are tasked with …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Shipspotting
Waterfront

Diagram showing the lines of the sloop Peacock.

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Workers walk alongside a large stone dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard with two white tugboats below and a red and white crane on the right.

Category: Waterfront

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