Take a ferry ride to Greenpoint as an antidote to angst

Eye on Real Estate

August 29, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn Bridge Park is the place to go for a fine late-summer NYC Ferry ride. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

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Are you angst-ridden because summer’s ending soon?

A ferry ride to Greenpoint is a fine antidote.

A sunny day, a gray day — either one will do. A trip on any NYC Ferry route will make you smile. But the North Brooklyn shoreline route is especially beguiling.

Start your ride in Brooklyn Bridge Park — where the famed Fulton Ferry service launched in 1814.

Robert Fulton’s newly invented steamship took just 12 minutes to cross the East River — which made it eminently practical for people who worked in Manhattan to live in Brooklyn.

In present-day Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1, where the NYC Ferry landing is located, is a visitor magnet. It’s an ideal spot to snap selfies with the World Trade Center and the Brooklyn Bridge as backdrops. Of course, you could spend an entire day strolling around the park and hanging out in 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge’s rooftop bar. That’s a story for another day.

After you step onto the ferry, you get an eyeful of the former headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The red electric letters atop 30 Columbia Heights that famously said “Watchtower” for a half-century have been removed from the building.

Current property owner Columbia Heights Associates is pursuing a challenge it filed with the city Board of Standards and Appeals to a surprising city Buildings Department decision that says nope, you can’t put new letters on the old sign’s frame.

Spitzer Enterprises’ shimmering towers

As the ferry heads up the North Brooklyn shoreline, it travels past Instagram-worthy landmarks such as the DUMBO Clocktower and Jane’s Carousel.

Near the Manhattan Bridge, an old DUMBO factory, 10 Jay St., has a new glass facade whose design is evocative of sugar crystals. The property is being converted into an office building.

You get a distant glimpse of the fabled Brooklyn Navy Yard, which has been in existence since 1801.

The eye-catching building at left, 10 Jay St., has a new glass facade.

In recent years, the famed shipbuilding facility has been reinvented as a hub for manufacturers, tech companies, filmmakers and entrepreneurs.

At the South Williamsburg ferry stop, glass facades gleam on the three apartment towers in Spitzer Enterprises’ 420 Kent Ave. complex.

The development is being spearheaded by the “Luv Gov,” aka former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

He rejoined his family’s company in 2014. He had resigned as New York’s governor in 2008 after his flings with prostitutes were publicized.

On the ferry ride, you pass Williamsburg’s landmarked Domino Sugar Refinery. It’s surrounded by recently opened Domino Park — which is another spot where you could spend an entire day.

The Edge and Northside Piers apartment buildings at North Williamsburg’s ferry stop look terrific when seen from the boat’s deck.

As the ferry ride continues, you’ll be able to fit the entire Williamsburg Bridge into your iPhone picture frame if you take the photo at the right time.

The Williamsburg Bridge looks especially iconic when you see it from a ferry in the middle of the East River.