Today the waterfront is lined with parks, promenades, and modern buildings, but for much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it looked very different. The shoreline was crowded with wooden piers, warehouses, ferry slips, and shipyards that supported one of the busiest ports in the world. Cargo ships arrived daily carrying goods from across the Atlantic, while ferries moved thousands of workers and travelers between boroughs and neighboring states.

As shipping technology changed and container ports moved elsewhere, many of these working docks disappeared. Over time, the old piers were removed or repurposed, and the waterfront began to transform into public space. While much of the original harbor infrastructure is gone, its legacy remains visible in the street grid, surviving warehouses, and the stories of the people who built their lives around the city's maritime trade.