Skip to content

Turnstile Tours

Please excuse our appearance! We are doing some site maintenance.

Virtual Programs
Guided Tours
Studio
About Us
Calendar
Blog
Support & Membership

Brooklyn Army Terminal Partners

Episodes • Support

Episodes • Support

Episodes • Support

Episodes • Info

Contact
FAQ
Join Our Mailing List
Privacy Policy
Benefit Reports

Latest from our Instagram

We spent the day yesterday sharing stories @bklynn

We spent the day yesterday sharing stories @bklynnavyyard of culinary entrepreneurs, artists, and manufacturers on both in-person and virtual tours for @openhousenewyork weekend! If you missed our livestreams, go to IGTV @bklynnavyyard to see our live behind-the-scenes visits with food trucks and artist @charlottawestergren @paintdowntown and a tour of @kingscountydistillery! Thank you to everyone who made it such a special day, including the #ohny staff and volunteers and @chopshoptruck @divineflavoredcatering @bkjerkmobile @larossipizza @empanadapapanyc
…….
#ohnywknd #ohny #ohnywkend #foodtrucks #foodproduction #foodsystems #brooklynnavyyard #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #artstudio #studiovisit #vendorpower #distillerytour

Join our virtual tour of the @brooklynarmyterminal

Join our virtual tour of the @brooklynarmyterminal for @openhousenewyork Saturday at 2pm, which will feature history, architecture, and a visit to @adaptability.bike. And stop by BAT all #ohnywknd for @chashama open studios (Sat & Sun 1–5pm) and @biobat_artspace (Sat & Sun 12–5pm), including a special exhibition by @arocha.tatiana, and choral performances on Sunday at 3pm & 4pm as part of @common_frequencies.
________________________________
@nycedc #brooklynarmyterminal #ohny #openhousenewyork #ohny2021 #openhousenewyork2021 #chashama #biobatartspace #virtualtour #virtuallearning #sunsetpark #sunsetparkwideopen #sunsetparkwideopen2021

Just got home from the kickoff reception for #ohny

Just got home from the kickoff reception for #ohnywknd, and in the parade of attractions the @bklynnavyyard and @brooklynarmyterminal were right at the front! We can’t wait to host this weekend and celebrate these amazing places! Join us Saturday and Sunday for in-person and virtual events at the Yard (including the OHNY food hub with food trucks and vendors from Building 77). We’ll be hosting a virtual tour of Brooklyn Army Terminal on Saturday at 2pm with @adaptability.bike, and come visit @chashama open studios and @biobat_artspace both days, including special exhibitions by @arocha.tatiana and @common_frequencies for SUNSET PARK WIDE OPEN.
___________________________________
#ohny #openhousenewyork #brooklynnavyyard #brooklynarmyterminal #biobatartspace #biobat #sunsetparkwideopen #openstudios #chashama @openhousenewyork @nycedc

Exploring the fallen fall fruits of @prospect_park

Exploring the fallen fall fruits of @prospect_park, including native black walnut (showing the large, yellowish-green fruit and the shell inside), non-native ginkgo berries (introduced from China), and the monstrous green fruits of the Osage orange. A tree native to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, it was widely distributed across the Midwest as a hedgerow plant, and it became a favorite of park co-designer Frederick Law Olmsted. You can also find these trees in @centralparknyc, as well as at Olmsted’s former farmstead in Staten Island, @olmstedbeilhouse.
____________________________________
#prospectpark #trees #fredericklawolmsted #olmsted #osageorange #ginkgo #blackwalnut #atreegrowsinbrooklyn #olmstedbeilhouse #centralpark #landscapearchitecture #olmsted200 @olmsted200 @naolmstedparks

Today we had the pleasure of leading a special tou

Today we had the pleasure of leading a special tour about people’s stories at the @bklynnavyyard to complement a portrait drawing workshop led by artist Noël Copeland. It was such a joy to spend this beautiful day with families and learn drawing techniques from Noël together! Special thanks to Noël for inviting us to collaborate with him on this program, and to the BNY’s Kina Bowen for all that she did to ensure everything went smoothly.
.
#reasonsilovemyjob #brooklynnavyyard #portraitdrawing #portraitworkshop #drawing #familyprogram #museums #arteducation #artoutdoors #artworkshop #teamwork #artworkshopforchildren

Join us for a special tour on Sunday, September 26

Join us for a special tour on Sunday, September 26 at 2pm at the @bklynnavyyard, when we’ll be exploring “Atmosphere for Innovation: Art & Object Walk,” a half-mile-long display of the art, industry, and innovation of the Yard community. We will be joined on our walk by Yard-based artists @nickgolebiewski and @paulcampbellartist, who has a painting on display inside Building 77 alongside many other Yard artists. Explore this new exhibit bringing the Yard to the community!
____________________________________
#brooklynnavyyard #flushingave #fortgreene #brooklyn #walkingtour #artwalk #nickgolebiewski #paulcampbell #atmosphereforinvention #tour

Learn how one New Yorker quit his job, checked out

Learn how one New Yorker quit his job, checked out a Citi Bike well beyond 30 minutes, rode it across the country, and fell in love with Tulsa along on the way. Author, entrepreneur, and tour guide Jeffrey Tanenhaus @countribike joins our free virtual program on Thursday 9/9 at 12:30pm EDT / 11:30am CDT for a discussion of his journey, his new book “West of Wheeling,” and his new passion leading tours of Tulsa @tulsa.tours. Link to free RSVP in bio.
_______________________________
#countribike #bikelife #bike #citibike #bicyclelife #tulsa #tulsaoklahoma #roadtrip #bicycletouring #virtualprogram #virtuallearning #bicycle #longdistancecycling #jeffreytanenhaus #westofwheeling @scribemediaco

#OTD in 1919, the @brooklynarmyterminal was comple

#OTD in 1919, the @brooklynarmyterminal was completed after 16 months of construction. Originally planned to be built in just seven months, the Armistice and a major strike delayed the completion significantly. On #LaborDay, let's talk about the workers who built BAT. Built by @turnerconstructioncompany, at the peak the massive project employed 7,400 people. During World War I, the federal government had wage controls in place for contractors, but abundant overtime meant you could make a good living; laborers at BAT could make up to $35 a week, 40% above the prevailing wage, and skilled craftsmen made $50 or more. The Terminal and other government construction projects attracted large numbers of people to Brooklyn, including more than 10,000 Black workers from the South in 1917–18 alone, as seen here among these “bucket boys” carrying tools and supplies. When the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918, the government maintained wage controls, but eliminated overtime for all federal contractors, effectively giving all Terminal construction workers a huge pay cut. On November 14 and 15, 5,000 laborers walked off the job, demanding the reinstatement of overtime. At least 2,000 would stay on strike for another week, but on November 21, the government reaffirmed its stance—no raises, no overtime. The tensions increased when, in response to the government’s intransigence, skilled carpenters and dockbuilders joined the strike. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners organized a nationwide strike, eventually involving 25,000 workers, and they would remain on strike for three months. The lack of carpenters made it impossible to build forms for pouring concrete, greatly slowing construction. The strike eventually led to arbitration, but the workers achieved very little; craft-based unions like the carpenters had no interest in broad-based organizing with “unskilled” workers, and the post-war Red Scare would set union organizing back for a generation, undoing the modest gains made during the war.
____________________________________#laborhistory #union #unionstrong #labor #brooklynarmyterminal #strike #wwi #worldwar1 #ww1 #firstworldwar #brooklyn #sunsetpark

From Flushing Bay to Jamaica Bay, Gowanus Creek to

From Flushing Bay to Jamaica Bay, Gowanus Creek to the Harlem River, the tides of New York City’s waterways powered mills well into the 19th century. Join us tomorrow at 12:30 EDT for a discussion about tide mills’ history, their uses, and how the technology could be applied today, with @bowerybird and @forepeaksolutions. Link to the virtual program in bio.
____________________________________
#tidemills #nychistory #colonialamerica #gowanus #flushingbay #jamaicabay #seeyourcity #greenenergy #renewableenergy #discoveringnyc @gowanusdredgers #tidemillinstitute #virtualtour #virtuallearning

Furrow spider watching the sunset with us.

Furrow spider watching the sunset with us.

We love this map of @prospect_park published by Ma

We love this map of @prospect_park published by Matthew Dripps in 1869 (from @nypl), because it presents a sort of Franken-park, a combination of two designs that never did, and never was supposed to, exist. In 1861, Egbert Viele completed his design for the park’s commissioners, which straddled Flatbush Avenue and had the Mount Prospect Reservoir at its center. Delayed due to the Civil War, in 1865 the commissioners asked architect Calvert Vaux to reevaluate this design, and after he brought in his partner Frederick Law Olmsted, they shifted the park entirely south of Flatbush and designed a watercourse and 60-acre lake to be added further south. Here we can see the Esplanade, the Parade, and the Botanical Garden—all elements of Viele’s design within the original park boundaries—with Vaux and Olmsted’s lake grafted onto the bottom. It’s unclear why the mapmaker made this choice, as Viele’s design had been wholly rejected several years before. Perhaps it was because the city was still debating what to do with the unused land north of Flatbush; some wanted to it sold or returned to the original owners, others wanted it used as parkland, but ultimately the city decided to keep most of it and use it instead to build other important civic institutions, namely @brooklynmuseum, @brooklynbotanic, and @bklynlibrary. Learn more about Prospect Park’s history on our weekend walking tours, coming up next on Saturday, Aug 21 at 10:30am (link in bio).
____________________________________
#prospectpark #brooklyn #brooklynmuseum #bbg #brooklynbotanicgarden #bpl #brooklynpubliclibrary #fredericklawolmsted #calvertvaux #parks #urbanparks #landscapearchitecture #brooklynhistory #olmsted #olmsted200 #civilwar #centralpark @olmsted200 @naolmstedparks

Fayal, Azores has played an outsized role in Ameri

Fayal, Azores has played an outsized role in American maritime history. The Portuguese port was an important waystation for New England whalers, and this depiction comes from “The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World,” created by Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington in 1848 and toured around the country. The 1,275-foot painting is currently on display at @mysticseaportmuseum, where different scenes are unfurled every two weeks. Fayal was also the site of a pivotal battle in the War of 1812, when on September 26, 1814, the American privateer General Armstrong repulsed a British attack and inflicted heavy casualties. The ship, commanded by Captain Samuel Chester Reid, managed to avoid capture and killed or wounded more than 100 British from the invasion force headed for New Orleans, though Reid ultimately had to scuttle his ship. Reid is buried in Brooklyn’s @historicgreenwood, where his grave was long unmarked until this new monument was installed in 1956, seen here with a 15-star flag, as Reid is credited with creating the convention of adding a star for each new state but maintaining 13 stripes on the flag (prior to this a star and a stripe was added for each new state).
____________________________________
#mysticct #mysticseaport #warof1812 #maritime #nautical #maritimehistory #navalhistory #usnavy #brookylnnavyyard #azores #portugal #panorama #cyclorama #arthistory #americanflag #flagcode #samuelcheaterreid

We had an incredible time yesterday exploring @mys

We had an incredible time yesterday exploring @mysticseaportmuseum, and we’ll be sharing more of what we learned in the coming weeks. Not only is it an immersive representation of a seaport town in the nineteenth century, it is also an active shipyard specializing in the preservation and restoration of wooden ships. Their collection contains more than 500 vessels of all sizes, and they do a fantastic job of preserving not only seafaring history, but more importantly, seafaring crafts. It was so amazing to see preserved, and in some cases still-active, workshops that have long since disappeared from the @bklynnavyyard—ropemaking, patternmaking, caulking, blacksmiths, etc. This exhibit of figureheads is just a small part of their collection, and they still have a working ship carver’s shop.
____________________________________
#mysticct #mysticconnecticut #ctshoreline #mysticseaport #maritime #waterfront #nautical #shipyard #shipbuilding #woodenships #maritimehistory #ct #connecticut #roadtrip #notinnyc

Just spotted the Edward V. Kramer, the ferry used

Just spotted the Edward V. Kramer, the ferry used to shuttle employees and equipment back and forth from Old Saybrook, Connecticut to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center of the Department of Homeland Security. Plum Island has been home to this high-security facility since 1954, and off-limits to the public for more than a century, but in 2005, the federal government announced plans to move research on livestock pathogens to Manhattan, Kansas. Initial plans called for Plum Island to be sold to a private buyer, but in 2020, Congress passed legislation blocking the sale and setting aside the island for wildlife conservation. Despite the imminent closure, DHS built this ferry for the island in 2018, as the controversial research lab will remain open until 2023. The vessel is named for a technician who began working at the lab when it opened at age 19 and remained until his passing in 2015.
____________________________________
#longislandsound #ctshoreline #oldsaybrook #connecticutriver #plumisland #dhs #instaship #shipspotting #ships #maritime #waterfront

This morning we took a kayak out to Poverty Point

This morning we took a kayak out to Poverty Point in Old Lyme, Connecticut, at the mouth of the Connecticut River where it meets Long Island Sound. Andrew canoed the Connecticut River from Windsor, Vermont to Old Saybrook in 2000 (about 180 miles), but the boat ramp where the trip ended was about two miles short of the Sound, so this was his first paddle on this section of the river. An early English colony was established on the opposite bank of the river, in Saybrook in 1635, hoping to make this a hub for commercial navigation of the Connecticut. Unfortunately, unlike the Hudson, the mouth of the Connecticut River has a substantial bar created by the river’s heavy silt flow, making it only one or two feet deep without dredging. This, combined with the colony’s other financial difficulties, led to it being merged with the Connecticut Colony in Hartford in 1644. Despite these early challenges, Connecticutians persisted for another 200 years (it is the Land of Steady Habits, after all) trying to turn the river into a commercial highway, dredging and building canals, with limited success.
____________________________________
#connecticutriver #kayak #oldsaybrook #oldlyme #ctshoreline #connecticut #colonialhistory #longislandsound #ct #roadtrip #notinnyc #ctriver

Literal moments after Andrew Cuomo resigned, we fo

Literal moments after Andrew Cuomo resigned, we found this mug in the shape of Al Smith’s head in an antique store. And we bought it.

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram

© Turnstile Tours, Inc. 2012–2021

Become a Member

Turnstile monthly membership gives you access to live and recorded virtual programs, exclusive online and in-person events, and members-only content. And your support allows us to continue sharing unique New York City stories during this challenging time.