Dumbo Then and Now: Washington and York Street

August 28th, 2006


New York Public Library has a nice collection of old photographs of New York streets. There are some Brooklyn photos from the Dumbo and Vinegar Hill areas in the 1800’s and early 1900s. The area was known as Fulton Landing where the ferry dropped off passengers from Manhattan. Once the Brooklyn Bridge was built in the 1883, followed by the Manhattan Bridge in the 1909, Fulton Landing became a commercial area and Brooklyn Heights the residential area. To put things into historical perspective, take a look at the before and after.

For the first in the series of “Dumbo Streetscapes Then and Now”, we are looking north on Washington Street with York Street in the foreground. In the old photo, circa 1926, you’ll notice that 70 Washington Street and 81 Washington Street (Thompson Water Meter) buildings are still around, but the dark brick building on the near right corner of York and Washington is gone, to make way for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Notice the old overpass between the Gair buildings past Front Street, no longer there. Also the electric wires have now moved underground.


1926


August 26, 2006

{New York Public Library photo of Washington Street and York Street}

Filed in Brooklyn Queens Expressway, Dumbo Streetscapes, Manhattan Bridge, Then and Now, Washington Street, York Street at 5:55 am
View Comments
  • Neilson
    Man, they really tore everything down! I have a xerox of an aerial photo taken of the Con Ed plant and Vinegar Hill from 1931 and it's unbelievable how many houses there were.
  • Love Brooklyn, can't wait to see more!
  • j
    Yeah, I'm going to say the wires have not been moved underground - electricity was always underground; the wires just disappeared the same time the trolleys did.
  • Andrew Porter
    Those electrical wires which have been moved underground in the 1926 photo are actually for streetcars to connect to (notice the tracks in the street below them).

    I've got a lot of photos of Washington Street (from the NYPL Digital Library), which used to have churches, a movie house (the Alcazar) and many other buildings on it. Everything south of the BQE has been destroyed, except the old Post Office. At one time the center of downtown Brooklyn was the corner of Washington and Johnson Streets.
  • Dot
    Wow... it's amazing how things still look the same, but yet so different. I'm so glad that the Gair buildings were never torn down.
  • pete
    Great pictures!
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