.. DUMBO IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT ..

A Transportation & Manufacturing Center

The first ferry service across the East River began in 1642 at the foot of Ferry Road and connected farmers in Brooklyn to the Manhattan markets. Robert Fulton’s steam ferries assumed the route in 1814, and the neighborhood became known as “Fulton Ferry.” Ferry Road was renamed Fulton Street (today, Old Fulton Street) and became the main thoroughfare connecting the outer regions of Brooklyn to the docks.

By the mid-19th Century, Fulton Ferry was a bustling industrial manufacturing center, and by the end of the 19th Century, its concentration of factories, which employed thousands of workers, many of whom walked to work across the Brooklyn Bridge from their Manhattan tenements, gave Brooklyn the standing of America's fourth-largest industrial city. Factories produced an assortment of products including tin cans, shoes, handkerchiefs, gloves, jewelry, watch cases, varnish, printing ink, kitchenware, water meters and macaroni. Today, the visible vestiges of DUMBO's industrial history are part of what gives the neighborhood its character.

Some of the more prominent links to this bygone era are the buildings themselves, in particular those originally built by the Turner Construction company for Robert Gair, a Scottish immigrant who became one of DUMBO's leading industrial proponents through his dominance of the paper industry. Having patented a machine for folding paper boxes in 1879, Gair chose DUMBO as the destination to build his empire, which would grow to include 10 buildings and employ nearly 2,000 workers by the early 20th century. Gair’s factories were built using a new form of engineering technology that, instead of bricks, used concrete reinforced with iron rods. The advantages were manifold: not only did concrete cost less than brick, it meant that buildings could be built more quickly and were fireproof (by eliminating the need for wooden beams) in addition to being able to support heavier loads of machinery.

One very important feature of this technology that continues to reverberate today isn't something one typically associates as a high priority for factories: because of the strength of the concrete walls, they could support larger windows and let in more light. Today, these same windows grace some of the most prized converted condominiums in the City. The advantages that Gair saw for his factories are the very features that make these buildings so desirable for residential conversion. By virtue of pioneering a new type of factory construction, Turner Construction and Gair led the way for many other manufactures who followed suit, a trend that ultimately laid the groundwork for DUMBO's modern identity. Indeed, the Gair name still graces the entryways of several of DUMBO's most distinct structures.

• Overview • A Transportation & Manufacturing Center • The Downturn • The Reinvestment of the Private Sector • DUMBO Today

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