Brooklyn Army Supply Base, Upper New York Bay from Fifty-eighth to Sixty-fourth Streets, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY

Significance: The Brooklyn Army Supply Base was erected rapidly in 1918 to meet military overseas shipping demands during World War I. It had the largest storage capacity of the seven supply bases built as part of the same program. Although not completed until after the armistice, the Brooklyn base had a significant role in World War II troop and supply movement. Quartermaster General George W. Goethals had overall responsibility for supply base construction in 1917-18, and directed an effort aimed at providing modern, permanent peacetime waterfront terminals as well as emergency facilities. In Brooklyn, Irving T. Bush made the initial studies for the base, modeled on his own Bush Terminal and municipal plans for waterfront development. Cass Gilbert's massive warehouses attracted international architectural attention, and the waterfront construction of three covered and one open pier included some innovative engineering decisions in the face of wartime steel shortages. All major base components were largely intact in 1988. The base included important new methods for handling waterfront and warehouse traffic, and represents some of the most advanced American shipping terminal designs made before 1920.
Survey number: HAER NY-202
Building/structure dates: 1919 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: after 1920 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: after 1930 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1945 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1959 Subsequent Work