i had a chance to formally tour the historic brooklyn navy yard last week.
the history starts with a dutch settler jansen de rapelje who purchased 335 acres of the land around the wallabout bay from lenape indians. apparently the lenape did not have much interest in the swampy area, although i can imagine the fishing and oystering must have been pretty good.
after that it became infamous during the revolutionary war era as the disgraceful site where the brits kept prison barges and murdered 12k prisoners.
the area was then formed as a navy yard in 1801 and remained so until decommissioned in 1966 (along with the brooklyn army terminal and governor's island). at its peak 70k people worked here during the second world war.
nowadays it's 300 acre campus has been transformed into a public private partnership of over 500 businesses in 70 buildings with 12k workers. the city sets the rents, so there is plenty of startup maker space as well as large established businesses.
note: except for one building, bldg 77 aka the food hall, and for the wegmans grocery store on the other end, the navy yard is otherwise private access and you need permission. tours are available on the website below --
the navy yard is kinda hard to get to. for employees it has its own own bus service with two routes around downtown brooklyn. it also has direct access the nyc ferry water taxi system on the astoria line -- i took it from wall street.
the navy yard hosts the nyc ferry fleet
the yard does not build ships anymore, but there is a large active repair area
a few cranes are very, very old, even some working cranes
this large new building was for we work co-working offices
unfortunately it opened right before the pandemic and is on fumes
the former swampy fill navy yard got flooded by sandy, this one wont flood
mark VII navy seal delivery vehicle 1960s - early 1980s
i have visited the navy yard a few times -- my friends had studios around this area -- i handled art work up and down -- oof!
the lines running overhead are for power and fire retardant
steam power for the navy yard and manhattan too
this is bldg 77 the largest in the yard 1M sq ft of various offices
its the only building open to the public with the ground floor food court
you can see what were the ship factory crane tracks on the ceiling
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