Ferries from Sunset Park/BAT

Elvis Presley shipped out for Germany from this pier. On 22 September 1958, Private First Class Presley and 1,170 other men of the Third Armored Division boarded the USS General George M. Randall at Pier 4 of the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The NYC Ferry landing is on the same waterfront, and it now handles 264 active sailings.

Where the boats go

• Pier 11 / Wall St. — about 13 minutes, 47 sailings.
• Rockaway — about 39 minutes, 45 sailings.
• Bay Ridge — about 5 minutes, 21 sailings.
• Red Hook — about 16 minutes, 20 sailings.

All operated by NYC Ferry.

⚠ Rockaway is the outlier on this list

Thirty-nine minutes is three times the next-longest run from here, and the traffic it carries is beach traffic rather than commuter traffic. Summer weekends fill it in a way the sailing count alone does not predict.

The other three are short urban hops on a commuter rhythm — dense at peaks, thin midday. Do not read the Rockaway pattern onto them or the reverse.

The Brooklyn Army Terminal

Four million square feet of reinforced concrete, designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 17 months between 1918 and 1919. It was the largest military supply base in the United States during the Second World War, and a federal alcohol store during Prohibition.

It is now a city-owned industrial park with a vast skylit atrium open to visitors on scheduled tours. Very little in New York is this large and this unknown.

Getting to the landing

The terminal is at 58th Street on the Sunset Park waterfront, a walk from the D and N lines under the Gowanus Expressway. It is further from the subway than most NYC Ferry stops, which is worth ten minutes of planning.

Fares

NYC Ferry is priced as its own system with no free transfer to bus or subway. For a commuter that is a second fare on top of whatever reaches the pier; for a visitor it is a cheap harbour crossing with a view of the Narrows.