DUMBO Washington Street: The Iconic Manhattan Bridge Frame

Why is it significant?

Stand squarely on the Belgian cobblestones at the intersection of Washington and Water Streets and gaze down the dramatic industrial canyon ahead.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stand squarely on the Belgian cobblestones at the intersection of Washington and Water Streets and gaze down the dramatic industrial canyon ahead. Flanked on either side by imposing red-brick warehouse facades with cast-iron lintels and fire escapes, the blue steel tower of the Manhattan Bridge rises with cinematic majesty in the distance. If you position yourself carefully between the tracks of the historic freight railway, you will observe the slender spire of the Empire State Building framed precisely through the central archway of the bridge tower.

This vibrant neighborhood takes its curious acronym from Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, coined in the nineteen seventies by bohemian artists seeking to deter real estate developers by adopting a deliberately unappealing moniker. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this district served as Brooklyn's premier manufacturing powerhouse, humming with the production of cardboard boxes, Arbuckle coffee beans, Brillo steel wool pads, and Grand Union tea canisters before undergoing a spectacular post-industrial transformation. In the golden era of Brooklyn maritime manufacturing, the relentless clatter of steam-powered machinery and the pungent aroma of roasting coffee beans filled the salt air, creating a bustling industrial hive whose goods were shipped to mercantile ports across five continents.

Look down at the irregular stones beneath your feet: these historic Belgian paving blocks were originally brought across the Atlantic as ship ballast in merchant sailing vessels, unloaded along the East River docks and laid into roadbeds to withstand the punishment of heavy horse-drawn dray carts.

Notice the embedded steel rails still glinting through the pavement: they belonged to the Jay Street Connecting Railroad, a tiny private freight line that shuttled cargo cars directly into the ground floors of these factory buildings until nineteen fifty-nine.

Stroll toward the waterfront park to admire the jewel-like glass pavilion enclosing the historic Jane's Carousel.