Fulton Street NYC

South Street Docks, New York City

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The view looking north along the South Street docks along the East River around 1900, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene in 2024:

There isn’t much left to remind visitors of the bustling seaport that lower Manhattan once was, and South Street itself, which was teeming with activity in 1900, is now pedestrian esplanade beneath the elevated FDR Drive. The top photo shows the piers of the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company, also known as the Ward Line. These were located just to the north of Wall Street on the East River, but today the only surviving structure from the 1900 photo that still exists today is the Brooklyn Bridge, seen in the background of both photos.

Wall Street Docks, New York City

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The view of the docks at the foot of Wall Street along South Street in New York City, between 1900 and 1905. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The same view in 2024:

Located on the East River waterfront, across South Street from the foot of Wall Street, the ferry terminal at the left provided passage from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Although the importance of East River ferries decreased once the Brooklyn Bridge and subsequent bridges were completed, ferries still play a role in New York’s transportation, as seen in the 2024 photo, where the site is still being used as a ferry terminal.  The actual boats visible in the first photo are not the ferries; they belonged to the US Army Quartermaster Corps, which no longer has a base in this area.