Edge’s Windmill, 1815 — Sim’s Wind turbine 2015

Recently, the NY Times and others have been reporting on the installation of the first commercial wind turbine in New York City. The Sims Municipal Recycling facility in Sunset Park on the Brooklyn waterfront has installed a 100 KW 160′ tall wind turbine. Wind power is expected to provide about 4% of the electricity for the recycling plant, while solar panels on the facility roof already provide approximately 16% of the plant’s electrical needs.

While the new Sims’ turbine is the first in New York City, it is certainly not the first in the harbor. Just across the water, an even larger wind turbine has been in operation on the Bayonne waterfront for the last three years. The Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority’s wind turbine has a rated capacity of 1.5 MW and stands 262′ tall.

Wind power, however, has at least a two hundred year history in New York harbor. In 1806 Isaac Edge, the son of an English miller, settled on the banks of the Hudson River, in the Paulus Hook neighborhood of downtown Jersey City. He bought property directly across the river from lower Manhattan on which to build his own grist mill. Sourcing the machinery and millstones from his father in Derbyshire, England, Edge commissioned the construction of a seven-story octagonal brownstone tower, built on a one-hundred foot long pier that jutted out into the Hudson River, at what is now the intersection of Montgomery and Greene Streets. The mill, completed in 1815, was a success, attracting farmers from all around the harbor. Grain arrived from New Jersey by cart and from Staten Island, the Bronx and Long Island by sloop. Right next to Edge’s mill was Robert Fulton’s shipyard and foundry, where he built his first steam engines. Edge’s mill and Fulton’s shipyard were among the first first industries in Jersey City.

In 1839, the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Co. bought Edge’s property and covered the pier with landfill to build its terminal at Exchange Place. The mill itself was moved to Southhold, Long Island, where it continued to operate until 1870, when it was destroyed by fire.