POTW: Garbage barge at Barren Island

Alice

black and white photograph of a tugboat and barge. The barge has "No. 1" painted on the side and the wording on the tugboat is cut off: "...of Baltimore." The sky takes up about half of the photograph.
Garbage barge at Barren Island, 1910, NEIG_2117; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.

This week's photo of the week takes us to a tugboat and garbage barge at Barren Island in 1910. I could not find the associated article with this Brooklyn Daily Eagle photograph, but this could have been meant to illustrate a proposed project to develop Jamaica Bay as a harbor extending "from the southeasterly border of Barren Island to a point some 7,000 feet east of the Long Island Railroad trestle crossing Jamaica Bay." The project, which was to be funded by the United States Government, "was intended primarily to relieve the crowded conditions of the Manattan and Brooklyn waterfronts ("Jamaica Bay Project City's Biggest Task," February 11, 1910, Brooklyn Daily Eagle).

Other results on Brooklyn Newsstand, our database of digitzed Brooklyn newspapers, for "garbage barge" brought back reports of a few instances of using these barges for rum-running during the Prohibition era. 

Can't get enough of garbage barges? Read Charlie Rudoy's blog post on the Mobro 4000, a garbage barge that spent 3 months in the New York Harbor with over 3,000 tons of trash. 

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.

 

 

 

This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.

 



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