When I first came to New York in the last quarter of the last century, I went to work for Moore-McCormack Lines, which had a terminal in Brooklyn on the Gowanus Canal. For better or worse, the Brooklyn waterfront has undergone some major changes in the last forty years. If you are in the New York area next Thursday, be sure to catch the Working Harbor Committee‘s next Hidden Harbor tour — Brooklyn Waterfront Past & Present to catch a glimpse of what ahs changed and what has stayed the same. Highlights of the tour will include the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the city’s new waterfront recycling facility at Gowanus Bay, and the working rail-to-barge connection at Brooklyn Army Terminal.

The tour will follow eight miles of Brooklyn waterfront, from Newtown Creek through Sunset Park, once filled with manufacturing, shipping, and commerce. Though apartment towers and landscaped parks have sprouted up, Brooklyn still retains an active trade and maritime business. The guides for the tour will be Richard Hanley, Director of City Tech’s Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center; Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman; and Captain Margaret Flanagan, Maritime Operations, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance.

The 2-hour, fully narrated boat tour departs at 6:00pm sharp from Pier 11 Wall Street in Manhattan located on South St. between Wall St. & Gouveneur Lane on Thurs. 26 May. Boarding begins at 5:30 pm. Snack bar on board. Click here for tickets.