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Brooklyn History On The Waterfront Podcasts

Behind the Domino Sign: The Story of Brooklyn’s Bittersweet Empire

The Brooklyn waterfront was once decorated with a yellow Domino Sugar sign, affixed to an aging refinery along a row of deteriorating industrial structures facing the East River. The Domino Sugar Refinery, completed in 1883 (after a devastating fire destroyed the original), was more than a factory. During the Gilded Age and into the 20th… Read More

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Brooklyn History On The Waterfront Podcasts

The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Vinegar Hill: Where American History Meets the Waterfront

The tale of the Brooklyn Navy Yard is one of New York’s true epic adventures, mirroring the course of American history via the ships manufactured here and the people employed to make them. The Navy Yard’s origins within Wallabout Bay tie it to the birth of the United States itself, the spot where thousands of… Read More

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American History On The Waterfront Podcasts

The Titanic and the Fate of Pier 54

In the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. the White Star ocean liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg en route to New York City and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. Survivors were rescued by the Cunard liner Carpathia and brought to their berth at Pier 54 at the Chelsea Piers. On that very spot… Read More

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On The Waterfront

A short history of New York City’s various Titanic memorials

The South Street Seaport is the home for a great many nautical treasures. It’s also the location of a memorial to nautical tragedy. The Titanic Memorial, a 60-foot white lighthouse, sits in the little plaza at Fulton and Water Streets. This was no mere decorative lighthouse as it seems today. For much of its history,… Read More

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Food History On The Waterfront Podcasts

The Fulton Fish Market: History at the South Street Seaport

In the 19th century, the Fulton Fish Market in downtown Manhattan was to seafood what Chicago stock yards were to the meat industry, the primary place where Americans got fish for their dinner tables. Over the decades it went from a retail market to a wholesale business, distributing fish across the country – although that… Read More

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On The Waterfront Podcasts

Road Trip to the Hudson Valley: A new three-part podcast series

Load up the cooler and crank up the tunes, because the Bowery Boys Podcast is heading back on the road! Presenting a NEW three part podcast series, exploring three historic places outside of New York City.  Last year we hit the expressway to visit three spots on Long Island — the Gold Coast, Jones Beach… Read More

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On The Waterfront

In 1863, the Russians invaded New York City

In 1863, New Yorkers flocked to the waterfront to see a startling sight — Russian war ships in New York Harbor. They were here as a display of force, but not to threaten the United States. The fleet of Russian ships, sailing into New York Harbor in September 1863, as depicted by Harper’s Weekly. Russia’s… Read More

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Know Your Mayors On The Waterfront Podcasts

Meet Mayor DeWitt Clinton, the man who built New York City’s future

With a new mayoral race on the horizon in New York City we think it is time that you Know Your Mayors! Become familiar with other men who’ve held the job, from the ultra-powerful to the political puppets, the most effective to the most useless leaders in New York City history. This longtime feature of… Read More

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On The Waterfront Women's History

The Deep Sea Hotel: A nautical housing solution for independent women

Arbuckle’s Deep Sea Hotel was neither in the deep sea, nor was it a hotel.  But for hundreds of young, single women at the end of the Gilded Age, it was home. The Challenges of Living Single Accommodations were indeed limited for the thousands of young single women who arrived in New York City at… Read More

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Brooklyn History On The Waterfront

The Brooklyn Historical Society’s stunning new museum in DUMBO

It just got a bit easier to access the glorious history of the Brooklyn waterfront. Don’t get me wrong; I love the development of Brooklyn Bridge Park and its clever incorporation of industrial infrastructure into public spaces — the piers, the warehouses, the cobblestone streets. (I don’t love this so much but whatever.) But things feel… Read More

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Museums On The Waterfront

The South Street Seaport Museum, at 50 years old, has gotten some tattoos

The under appreciated South Street Seaport Museum has always had a daunting mission to fulfill — preserving a piece of New York City history on the edge of a volatile and ever-changing waterway. Established fifty years ago this year, the museum has been the guiding presence to this remaining vestige of New York’s 19th century waterfront.… Read More

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Adventures In Old New York On The Waterfront Podcasts

The Pirate of Pearl Street: The All-True New York Adventures of Captain Kidd

PODCAST The tale of Captain William Kidd, a respectable New York citizen and landowner, and his transformation into the ruthless pirate of legend. The area of Lower Manhattan below Wall Street is today filled with investment bankers, business people and tourists. But did you know, over 300 years ago, that the same streets were once… Read More

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On The Waterfront

Hidden Waters of New York City: Interview with author Sergey Kadinsky

Sergey Kadinsky is our city’s resident Aquaman. His Hidden Waters of New York City was the big New York City exploration guide book of the spring. In a city often characterized by glass, steel and asphalt, it’s magical to consider the metropolis almost like a human body, comprised and reliant upon water for its well-being. As though… Read More

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On The Waterfront True Crime

The tale of Newgate, the New York state prison in the West Village

You may not be aware of the Weehawken Historic District, a collection of 14 buildings of unique architectural character in the far West Village. It lies at the foot of Christopher Street and centers around the one-block-long Weehawken Street. You really should take a stroll down here. It will take you all of one minute; the street… Read More

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On The Waterfront

A Haunting Look Inside the Lusitania

The Lusitania gets dwarfed by recollections of the Titanic.  But in many ways, the destruction of the Cunard Line’s premier ocean liner on May 7, 1915, was a deeper tragedy than that of the White Star liner. As a casualty of war — sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of southern Ireland —… Read More