Dumbo history
A little bit of history between the bridges.
Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.
That’s what Dumbo stands for.
In 1978, residents living between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges decided to give their neighborhood a name to strengthen the area’s identity in the face of development. At a loft party that will go down in history, the community-members considered two acronyms: DANYA, District Around the Navy Yard Annex, and Dumbo, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (or, according to some, Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Overpasses).
You can guess which name won!
Dumbo Fun Facts!
Part of the first and largest battle of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Brooklyn, was fought in Dumbo.
In August 1776, the Patriot Army fought the first, and largest, battle in their war for independence right here in Brooklyn. General George Washington and his troops were vastly outnumbered and it seemed that the war would be over as soon as it began. Yet, Washington managed to escape crushing defeat by retreating across the East River at Fulton Ferry Landing overnight, saving his men and supplies.
Dumbo had its own railroad to transport goods around its manufacturing facilities.
Coffee business owner Charles Arbuckle established the Jay Street Connecting Railroad to transport the raw coffee beans that arrived at the Dumbo waterfront to his Ariosa coffee factories, and then back to his storage (now, Empire Stores), where they were stored until shipped on to further destinations. The tracks also ran inside buildings, such as in the Bliss foundry at 202-206 Plymouth Street. You can see the remains of these tracks crisscrossing the Belgian block cobblestones to this day.
The Fulton Ferry has been consistently operational since 1642, used by Dumbo residents from Native American fisherman to today’s commuters.
New York’s first ferry service began in 1642, under the management of farmer Cornelius Dircksen, and was used by both Native American and Dutch colonial residents. The Fulton Ferry was officially launched in 1813, with the inaugural Nassau ferry. The service played a large role in the development of Brooklyn’s residential communities. It was beautifully immortalized in the poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” by one of Brooklyn’s most famous residents, Walt Whitman. Today’s ferry has expanded greatly, serving the length of the East River from the Rockaways to the Bronx.
Water Street used to be the waterline.
New York City has a long history of landfilling to create livable space, and Dumbo is no exception. For most of its history, Dumbo was a salt marsh, with the water line reaching present-day Water Street. In 1686, the New York City municipal government sold the underwater land lots, or “water lots,” to private citizens who proceeded to fill these spaces to build wharves and other coastal infrastructure. The waterfront build-out began in earnest in the late 18th century, pushing the shoreline farther into the East River.
The block now occupied by the Empire Stores was part of this landfilling trend. Bounded by Main, Water, Dock, and Plymouth Streets, the site’s physical footprint was created in three landfilling episodes, from around 1796 to 1850.
Vinegar Hill is named after a battle in the Irish Revolution.
Vinegar Hill is named after the Battle of Vinegar Hill from the Irish Revolution in 1798. Landowner John Jackson thought to use the name in an attempt to attract Irish immigrants to settle there.
What’s the story of your Dumbo address?
The Black history of Dumbo
The first Black school in Brooklyn was opened in Dumbo.
In 1812, a local church sponsored the creation of the first school for Black children in the area. Church schools were the only source of formal education for Black children in early 1800s Brooklyn, as public schools restricted the enrollment of Black students. The Concord Baptist Church, Siloam Presbyterian Church, and the Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church all originated in the Dumbo area before moving to Bedford-Stuyvesant. Many of these churches were also important sites along the Underground Railroad during the Civil War era.
Dumbo was the home of The Brooklyn African Woolman Benevolent Society.
The small, free Black mutual aid organization provided financial assistance to community members in need and was at the center of anti-slavery activism in Brooklyn. Founded in 1810, the African Woolman Benevolent Society coordinated freedom marches and parades across Brooklyn and collaborated with anti-slavery activist groups in Manhattan and across the country. The abolition of slavery in New York came 17 years after the society’s founding, in 1827.
By the late 19th century, Dumbo was the site of numerous black-owned businesses.
Black residents of Dumbo opened cobbler’s shops, stables, and whitewashing businesses. The neighborhood was one of the first major free Black communities in New York.
Read more about the Black history of Brooklyn and see Black-owned businesses in Dumbo today.
Between the Bridges
The Brooklyn Bridge
Completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the world’s first steel-wire suspension bridge. Now an iconic feature of the New York skyline, the bridge was initially created to connect the two (then separate) cities of New York and Brooklyn. The Bridge was designed by German engineer John Augustus Roebling, who is credited with a major advancement in the design of suspension bridges: by adding a web truss to both sides of the infrastructure, the bridge would have no risk of collapsing in high winds or storms.
In 1867, his design for what is now known as the Brooklyn Bridge was approved. Although John Augustus Roebling was the original engineer, shortly before construction began, Roebling died, leaving his son, Washington, as Chief Engineer (he was the natural choice, having worked with his father on the design of the Bridge). Construction was tough, and dozens of workers perished in the process, either from Caisson Disease (“the bends”) or from fatal falls.
Washington developed Caisson Disease and was paralyzed during construction. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, stepped in. Though Washington retained the official title of Chief Engineer, Emily managed the day-to-day, seeing the bridge to completion. At the time, it was the first steel suspension bridge built and boasted the longest span in the world: 1,600 feet from tower to tower. Emily was the first person to cross the bridge at its unveiling, carrying a rooster with her for good luck! A cultural attraction to this day, the Brooklyn Bridge carries more than 100,000 vehicles and pedestrians daily.
The Manhattan Bridge
Younger than the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge construction began in 1901, and while initially intended for trains, the Bridge opened to train, automobile, and pedestrian traffic in 1909. The Manhattan Bridge was designed by engineer Leon Moisseiff, who based his design on deflection theory, saving on material costs and construction time. Deflection theory was first published in 1888 by the Austrian academic Josef Melan. It explains how deck and cables deflect together under gravity loads, so that, as spans become longer and the suspended structure heavier, the required stiffness of the deck decreases.
The last of the three suspension bridges to be built across the East River, the Manhattan Bridfe was almost named the Wallabout Bridge, referring to Wallabout Bay, on the Brooklyn side (a 1905 opinion piece in the New York Times ridiculed the name choice, saying “All bridges across the East River are Manhattan bridges”). The Manhattan Bridge has required frequent repair and upgrades since its first opening (most alarmingly, perhaps, a 1956 repair intended to fix a tilt caused by the subway)! The most recent renovation, in 2007, increased capacity, allowing about 150,000 cars to travel the bridge daily. The Manhattan Bridge is one of New York’s most iconic visuals, and you can get the best shot from Dumbo’s Washington Street!
Invented in Dumbo
The cardboard box
Perhaps Dumbo’s biggest claim to fame, the cardboard box was invented by Dumbo developer Robert Gair. Originally from Scotland, Gair moved to Manhattan and entered the paper-goods industry, producing paper bags in Tribeca. As with many inventions, Gair’s leap from paper bag to cardboard box was a mistake.
A worker made an error in 1879, which resulted in 20,000 paperboard seed bags tearing, and sparked an idea: Gair realized that by perforating and creasing paperboard, he could create prefabricated boxes. Until then, boxes were made by hand, and were therefore expensive. Gair moved his operation to Dumbo, where he bought and built so many buildings that the neighborhood was called Gairville for years. He patented a box-folding machine and got into the printing business. In 1896, Gair produced two million printed boxes for Nabisco’s new-fangled boxed biscuits, Uneeda, and the cardboard box went, well, viral. Today, the Gairville Buildings are owned by Two Trees Management Company, but you can still see Gair’s mark on each entrance.
Coffee (the roasted, packaged kind)
Jon and Charles Arbuckle were the first in the U.S. to sell processed coffee beans packaged for individual sale, rather than for bulk orders. Philadelphians by birth, the Arbuckles settled in Dumbo in 1871, significantly expanding their Ariosa coffee empire (“Ariosa” = A for Arbuckle, R for Rio De Janiero, SA for South America).
At the time, the Brooklyn waterfront was already on the coffee map: 85% of imported coffee came through its ports, but what put Brooklyn on the map was the process the Arbuckles invented and later patented, for roasting and coating coffee beans with an egg and sugar glaze to seal in the flavor and aroma. By 1906, about 25 million pounds of coffee were roasted per month at their main location, 25 Jay Street. At their peak, in the 19-teens, the Arbuckle empire spanned many Dumbo blocks and was entirely self-contained: they owned the warehouses where product was stored, they controlled the modes of transport, they refined the sugar (see below), they printed the packaging, and they even had a hospital for their employees! The Arbuckles continued their Dumbo operations until the late 1930s.
Brownstoner has a great three-part series on the Arbuckles; it’s definitely worth a read!
Sugar
The Domino Sugar factory in Williamsburg, the Havemeyer Sugar Company’s main refinery, looms large on the East River these days, but it’s not the only sugar refinery to have ever graced the Brooklyn waterfront. The Arbuckles relied on sugar for its innovative coffee processes, and they needed a lot of it. When the Havermeyers wouldn’t give them a quantity discount, the Arbuckles decided to set up their refinery at 10 Jay Street; at its peak in 1913, their factory produced about 5,000 barrels of sugar a day (you can still see some of the steel “feet” of the building in the John St section of Brooklyn Bridge Park). Havemeyer retaliated by getting into the coffee business. He acquired the Woolson Spice Company of Toledo, Ohio, and went on to package and distribute “Lion” coffee. It was the beginning of the Sugar and Coffee War – a “war” that cost both sides astronomical amounts of money and lasted for years until Havemeyer folded. The Arbuckles kept refining sugar until 1945, when 10 Jay Street was converted to a warehouse.
The first grocery chain
The Grand Union Company, one of the largest grocers of the 20th century, got its start in Dumbo! Cyrus, Frank, and Charles Jones moved their company (originally, the Jones Brothers Tea Company) to the neighborhood in the late 1800s, making their mark selling coffee, tea, spices, baking powder, and flavoring extracts. By the time they moved to their Dumbo headquarters in 1897, at 68 Jay St, they were well on their way to becoming one of the largest grocery chains in the United States. At 68 Jay, the Grand Union warehouse had 10 acres of floorspace, and at its peak, shipped 120,000 cakes of soap and 20,000 pounds of baking soda each day. The company’s yearly output of coffee was 32 million pounds. Read more over on Brownstoner.
Brillo pads
The Brillo pad, a now ubiquitous tool in kitchens across America, was first manufactured in 1917 out of the factory at 200 Water Street. A cookware peddler and a jeweler found a way to remedy the blackening of aluminum pots and pans with jeweler’s rouge, soap, and fine steel wool—and it took off overnight. The Dumbo factory was in use until 1955.
Water meters & Eskimo Pie
Though not technically invented in Dumbo, the New York City water meter owes its story to the gorgeous, candy-colored building on the corner of York and Bridge Streets. In 1899, the City of New York ordered every public building to install a water meter, and Scottish-born John Thomson, who invented one of the only city-approved water meters in 1887, saw an opening (Tomson would go on to hold 350 patents during his lifetime!) moved his production to Washington Street, in Dumbo. Demand was so high,that in 1908, he purchased the lot at 100-110 Bridge Street and commissioned New York architect-engineer Louis Jallade to design and build his new factory. The resulting building was ornate, with six different colored glazes and many fanciful touches, including lion’s heads, cartouches, leaves, and other motifs. Thomson died in 1926; his company was sold and relocated to Queens. A year later, 100-110 Bridge Street was purchased by the Eskimo Pie Corporation, which proceeded to churn out their foil-wrapped, chocolate-covered ice cream bars in Dumbo until 1966.
West Elm
A fun fact about one of America’s favorite home goods stores: West Elm was born and raised in Dumbo! West Elm was founded in the neighborhood in 2002, and they opened their first-ever store in December 2003. Today, West Elm’s flagship space anchors the beautiful Empire Stores, and their corporate headquarters are right upstairs.
Jacques Torres chocolate
Jacques Torres is Dumbo’s most famous chocolatier. This chocolate-cum-reality-TV-star got his start at 66 Water Street in 2000, the site of his original commissary and first-ever retail space.
Tin cans, tools, paper, and torpedoes
After settling in Dumbo after the Civil War, machinist E. W. Bliss opened his first shop in 1867 and continued to acquire property in the neighborhood until he owned the entire block bound by Plymouth, Adams, John, and Pearl Streets. He built what is today 135 Plymouth (it’s is a complex of three different buildings), which became the headquarters of his machinery business. With over 186,500 square feet of interior manufacturing space, the list of items the Bliss company manufactured was long, including various sheet metal products, tools, tin cans and packages, car parts, and even, for a while, torpedoes. The building complex included a “factory within a factory” – accessible via gangways – and was designed to contain any accidental explosions! Bliss died in 1903, and his company continued working for another three decades. The building went on to house the Waring Envelope Company, a paper recycling company, and today, 135 Plymouth is a mixed-use space, and home to the 60th branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
The Kirkman Soap Company
In 1837, Alexander Kirkman started a company selling laundry and dishwashing products, including Kirkman Borax Soap and boxes of Kirkman Pure White Flakes. In 1915, the company moved to Dumbo and became one of the country’s top soap producers. In 1929, they were bought out by Colgate-Palmolive, but their products were available throughout the Northeast until the 1950s.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard
Empire Stores
There’s a podcast for that!
The Bowery Boys on (some) things Dumbo