Dan Brenner
Situated at the mouth of the Gowanus Canal in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, the Red Hook Grain Terminal was built in 1922, as part of the New York State Canal System (formerly known as the New York State Barge Canal). This project was a plan to incorporate a new series of waterways to re-route and improve shipping along the Erie Canal. The New York State Canal System also included the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, the Champlain Canal, and the Oswego Canal.
The Erie Canal, which connects Lake Erie to the Hudson River, opened on October 26, 1825 and played a major role in developing the shipping and trade economy of New York City. By the early 1920s, the grain trade was already in a state of decline. In an attempt to revitalize the Gowanus Canal and to coincide with the new canal system, plans were set in motion to build a grain terminal in Red Hook along the Gowanus Canal, which had become an infrequently used waterway.
The Red Hook Grain Terminal (referred to as the Gowanus Canal Grain Terminal above) opened on September 1, 1922 and was considered an immediate failure by some. This was due to a decline in canal usage as a means of transport and an overall drop in grain shipment from the previous decade. The structure remained in use until 1965. It still stands abandoned today, over fifty years later.
This image comes from the Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection (ARC.202). For more information please see our finding aid here and for more photographs from this collection please visit our image gallery here.
Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections; visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
I was born in 1932 at Kings…
I was born in 1932 at Kings County Hospital. We lived in Red Hook, in a house at 108 Dwight Street. The "grain elevator," as it was known to us, was a Red Hook landmark. It was located in an area we called the "Long Dock"; many a young man first learned to swim in its oil-slicked water.
During WWII, the Normandy, a French luxury liner, was sabotaged and capsized at one of the piers in Manhattan; the ship was raised and towed to the Long Dock, where it remained for the remainder of the war.
Sat, May 31 2025 12:28 pm
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