#133 Red Hook: Brooklyn on the Waterfront

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2012

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Red Hook, Brooklyn, the neighborhood called by the Dutch 'Roode Hoek' for its red soil, became a key port during the 19th century, a stopping point for vessels carry a vast array of raw goods from the interior of the United States along the Erie Canal. In particular, two manmade harbors were among the greatest developments in Brooklyn history, stepping in when Manhattan's own decaying wharves became too overcrowded. With these basins came a mix of ethnicities to Brooklyn, and along with new styles of row houses came the usual mix of vices -- saloons and brothels along Hamilton Avenue. This fostered the development of crime along the docks, and Red Hook soon witnessed firsthand the opening salvos of 20th Century organized crime. How did the history-rich, nautical neighborhood go from a booming center of employment to one of the worst neighborhoods in the United States by the 1990s? And can some surprising twists of fate from the last twenty years help Red Hook return to its glory days? Featuring: Revolutionary War forts, shantytowns, Vaseline factories, famous gangsters, the gateway to Hell, and cheap Swedish furniture! www.boweryboyspodcast.com Twitter: Boweryboys Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 133, Red Hook, Brooklyn on the Waterfront.
0:05.7	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:07.3	Hey.
0:08.3	The Bowry Boys is brought to you by EuroChipo.com.
0:12.2	EuroChipo editors personally visit and review the best budget hotels in Europe.
0:17.0	Now with hotels in New York City, on the web at EuroChipo.com.
0:21.8	Happy 2012, everybody.
0:23.5	This is Greg Young with another episode of The Bowry Boys.
0:26.7	And we were supposed to have a regular show with the two of us,
0:30.5	but I got our schedule a little wrong.
0:32.5	So we'll actually have that at the end of the month.
0:35.2	But for now, I'll slide in a little solo show here to tide you over.
0:38.3	And I'm indulging myself this time by exploring the history of a place
0:41.9	that has endlessly fascinated me for years.
0:45.2	The isolated Brooklyn Waterfront neighborhood of Red Hook,
0:48.7	a complicated and unusual place which harkens back to the roots of New York
0:52.6	nautical history.
0:53.6	For almost a century, Red Hook's docks and manmade peers were crucial to the American economy.
0:58.9	And for a time, the area was Brooklyn's most ethnically diverse neighborhood.
1:02.8	But Red Hook is probably better known in the popular imagination for its crime.
1:07.6	A network of theft and violence that brought to prominence the city's biggest crime bosses
1:12.3	and a blighted neighborhood that was famously called, quote,
	...

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