Neighborhood Guide

Brooklyn Navy Yard


The United States Navy Yard, New York - better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard (NYNSY) - is an American shipyard, located in Brooklyn, 1.7 miles (2.7 km) northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the River across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan. It is bounded by Navy Street, Flushing and Kent Avenues, and at the height of its production of U.S. Navy warships it covered over 200 acres.

Following the American Revolution, the waterfront site was used to build merchant vessels. Federal authorities purchased the old docks and 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land for forty thousand dollars in 1801, and the property became an active U.S. Navy shipyard five years later, in 1806. The offices, store-houses and barracks were constructed of handmade bricks, and the yard's oldest structure (located in Vinegar Hill), the 1807 federal style commandant's house, was designed by Charles Bulfinch, architect of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.. Many officers were housed in Admiral's Row.

 

Area: 0.841 square miles

Population: 3,041

Population density:
 

Navy Hill (Brooklyn Navy Yard):  3,616 people per square mile
Brooklyn:  34,917 people per square mile