View from the Penny Bridge at Montague, July 4th, 1859. Wall Street Ferry terminal, Pierrepont Stores.
My paternal ancestors have the distinction of being the first to have set Walt Whitman to music, when in 1846 an ode written by Whitman for the July 4th celebrations at Fort Greene was sung to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner as played by Granger’s Brooklyn Brass Band.
Here is an excerpted transcription of the day’s program, including the Whitman Ode, as published by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on July 2nd, 1846: Continued…
View south on Flatbush where Atlantic crosses, 1845. Period tinting.
A Long Island Rail Road train makes its approach from the east toward the Bull’s Head Tavern in 1845. The place was made famous by its role in the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn as Baker’s Tavern.
The Brooklyn and Jamaica Rail Road was chartered in 1832, and was opened from the South Ferry to Jamaica, a distance of about twelve miles in 1836; not long after the Long Island Rail Road, chartered April 26, 1834, ran cars over the same track, reaching some of the towns in Suffolk county. The route was along Atlantic Street, now Atlantic avenue. Continued…
Northeastern view from inside the Navy Yard, Wallabout Bay and Williamsburgh beyond. 1851.
A terribly romantic, picture-postcard view from inside the Navy Yard in 1851. Note the oxen, presumably for hauling, inside the ship-building shed, and the wonderfully sculptural quality of the cannonball pyramids (one is reminded of today’s annual sculpture installations along the Dumbo waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park).
The Navy Yard was indeed a romantic destination for most of the nineteenth century. This excerpt from a New York Times article in the 1890s offers an evocative glimpse of the location’s appeal: Continued…
30
Jun
Area:
Fulton Street
A block of the old Brooklyn Village that remained, more or less, for over 125 years. Modern tinting.
In the time period this image depicts, about 1830, the western terminus of Prospect Street was part of a busy three-way intersection that included Main and Fulton, and marked the split of traffic between the Fulton Ferry and the more eastern Catharine Ferry at the foot of Main.
Remarkably, several of these wood-frame buildings remained until the 1950s.
Continued…
29
Jun
Area:
Fulton Street
View north toward the river on Fulton Street, 1830s. Period tinting.
This image of the Fulton Ferry landing, just before it would be remade into the commercial thoroughfare we can still see remnants of today, seems at first glance to be a rather charming if unremarkable tableau. In fact, it includes at least a couple of elements that make it quite unique. Continued…
View east, Navy Yard dry dock works, 1849; Naval Hospital in the background. Modern tinting.
It is today the smallest dry dock at the Navy Yard and is mainly used for tugboats, but at the time it went into full service in 1851, it was regarded as one the great examples of 19th Century engineering. It was named a New York City landmark in 1975. Continued…
Click the images for a larger view.
