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| From the Department of If Only: the Jamaica Bay seaport (2019565) | |||
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From the Department of If Only: the Jamaica Bay seaport |
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Posted by Peter Rosa on Fri Jul 11 15:38:02 2025 Around the time of World War I, with the Manhattan and Brooklyn docks already getting crowded, the city came up with an ambitious idea of building a new, world-class seaport on Jamaica Bay in then largely undeveloped Canarsie. Docks would line both sides of the deepened and straightened Paerdegat Basin served by rail spurs extending from the LIRR Bay Ridge line. Beyond the work on the Paerdegat, still plainly visible on maps, nothing ever happened and the idea soon faded away.Let’s assume the seaport actually got built. I believe one of two outcomes would have come to pass: 1) Good outcome - With a thriving port on Jamaica Bay the city would be a shipping powerhouse, quite unlike the actual situation in which commercial shipping has nearly vanished except for Howland Hook and a very small amount in Brooklyn. Even better, a whole industrial area may well have grown around the seaport and the city would actually have a meaningful amount of industry. It goes without saying that there long since would have been a freight tunnel across the Hudson and it would have been expanded to provide double stack clearance. And let’s not forget an expanded highway network. Most vitally, NYC would have something it desperately lacks - JOBS! 2) More realistic outcome - the port would be obsolete and largely or completely abandoned. What would have been a vast amount of space 110 years ago would be way, way less than needed for modern containerized shipping. Just look on Google Maps satellite view at a thriving container port like Savannah or Charleston and prepare to be shocked at the vast amount of landside space they occupy. Note that by the time containers came along in the 1960’s Canarsie was fully developed and it would have been a political nightmare and huge expense to demolish hundreds or even thousands of houses for port expansion. In addition, the port might be too small to handle today’s vastly larger ships. |
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