09/27/17 3:10pm

Folk music. Bluegrass. Country. These are not genres one necessarily associates with the Brooklyn waterfront. Until recently, Dumbo’s previous musical claim to fame was being the backdrop of the 1987 Bananarama video for “Cruel, Cruel Summer.” During the past three years, however, Brooklyn Americana Music Festival founder Jan Bell has worked to change that.

Photo by David Donohoe via Facebook

The sounds of fiddles, banjos, mandolins, and lots and lots of guitars echoed throughout Dumbo and Red Hook this past weekend, thanks to the festival, which started in 2015. This year, the 2017 Brooklyn Americana Music Festival consisted of more than 60 acts across seven stages and four days, kicking off with a sold-out gala last Thursday at the Jalopy Theater in Red Hook–showcasing bands from as far away as Kansas (Truck Stop Honeymoon) and Indiana (Tim Grimm Family Band)–and finishing Sunday night with an afterparty at Dumbo landmark Superfine.

The Aching Hearts Play Pier 6 | Facebook

Over the weekend, performances took place in the Archway under Manhattan Bridge, at beloved Red Hook watering hole Sunny’s, Red Hook Bait & Tackle, 68 Jay Street Bar, and the picnic tables at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6. Shows started on Saturday and Sunday around noon and went, in some cases, past midnight. Local performers included 12-year old Little Nora Brown, the Brothers Brothers, the Chapin Sisters, Gangstagrass impresario Rench, and the Defibulators. (more…)

12/07/12 10:42am

What? What?! The area in Brooklyn around Flatbush Avenue Extension in downtown Brooklyn is known as “RAMBO” (Right After the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) has showed up on Google Maps, according to NY Post. Google has set the boundaries to be between Nassau Street and Tillary Street and Flatbush Ave Extension and Gold Street. But don’t look for it anytime soon on the MTA maps, as when Dumbo was included in 2010, says a DOT staff who asked not to be named.

While we’re on Google Maps, the correct location for the F subway station (York St) has still not been fixed. The map shows that the station is on the corner of Jay and Sands Street. The correct location is on the corner of Jay and York Street. We’ve submitted this error for many months.

Do you know how Dumbo got its name?

Related:
{Google Map Adds Dumbo POIs}
{Walk Around Dumbo Using Google Maps Street View}
{The New MTA Subway Map And Yes, Dumbo Is On It}

04/26/12 3:59pm


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The old photo above, courtesy of New York City Municipal Archives, from 1908 of Manhattan Bridge shows the bridge under construction. 870,000 photographs of New York and its municipal operations have been made public for the first time on the internet. The city Department of Records officially announced the debut of the photo database yesterday.

Above is one of the photos that was released (on Yahoo News):

“In this June 5, 1908 photo provided by the New York City Municipal Archives, the superstructure from the Manhattan Bridge rises above Washington Street in New York. Over 870,000 photos from an archive that exceeds 2.2 million images have been scanned and made available online, for the first time giving a global audience a view of a rich collection that documents life in New York City. (AP Photo/New York City Municipal Archives, Department of Bridges/Plant & Structures, Eugene de Salignac)”

Construction of the Manhattan Bridge started in 1901 and was open to traffic at the end of 1909. This view looking down Washington Street is a well known one. This 1908 photo also shows the buildings on Plymouth Street, which still stand today (left one is 30 Washington Street and right one is 25 Washington Street).

Here’s another image of the photo from 1908, 1974, and 2009.


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{Dumbo Then and Now, series, DumboNYC}