HERE’S a look at Furman Street from the Brooklyn Bridge. It runs nearly uninterrupted along the East River from Atlantic Avenue north to Old Fulton Street. It sits at the bottom of a steep cliff, and long-ago road builders felt no need to continue Brooklyn Heights’ cross streets from Columbia Heights, at the top of the cliff, west to Furman. That’s not to say Furman Street wasn’t busy, though, as during the week it was chockablock with dock workers unloading barges and vessels importing goods from around the planet. Brooklyn’s docks in Sunset Park, Brooklyn Heights and Greenpoint have given way to luxury housing and waterside parks, like the recently completed Brooklyn Bridge Park which runs continuously all the way from Atlantic Avenue north and east to Jay Street in DUMBO. There was even a waterside railroad, the NY Dock Railway, which brought goods from the waterfront to inland storehouses. When I began Forgotten NY some of those tracks are still in place. The dock railway office building, constructed in 1917, remains in place at Furman Street and Joralemon, the only street that intersects Furman.
Knowing that Furman Street was about to undergo numerous changes, I walked its length in 2008. In 2015, I covered the original Squibb Bridge that connected Squibb Park on Columbia Heights with Brooklyn Bridge Park. That bridge proved to be unstable and caused some queasiness for some of its users as it swayed somewhat; the bridge was not unsafe, as it was built to sway, but other imperfections were found and it was eventually closed. Its pillars remained in place and new, more conventional Squibb Bridge opened in 2021. You can see the original in the above photo. You can also see the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower complex at left, now converted to housing offices/retail, and one of Furman’s new luxury towers at right.
Furman Street took its name from a formidable father-son duo. Judge William Furman (1765-1832), a close friend of NYS Governor DeWitt Clinton. His son, Gabriel Furman (1800-1854) ran for lieutenant governor under the Whig banner. He was also a historian and wrote Notes Geographical and Historical, Relating to the Town of Brooklyn, on Long-Island in 1824.
Furman both documented his personal observations about Brooklyn and New York and recorded historical items relevant to his writing and lectures. Among the wide diversity of topics found in the journals are epidemics of cholera and yellow fever, financial crises, daily weather conditions, theatre and the arts, politics, and religious belief. The collection also holds Furman manuscript histories, notably one on theatre in New York. Finally, the collection includes several pages from a Furman letter book, principally from 1824, and a page of his legal drafts from 1823. [BPL]
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12/9/23
4 comments
Your statement, ” the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower complex at left, now converted to housing,” is wrong. That complex was converted to offices, and retail space..
I miss the Jehovah Witness digital clock on the Brooklyn side(“Awake!And read the Watchtower!”)
It always cheered me up walking across the bridge on a winter night.
Speaking of Joralemon, around 1990 I was visiting my friend in Brooklyn Heights and we were walking down that street toward Furman. I said the street name out loud, not knowing how to pronounce it, with the stress on the “e.” My friend laughed and without missing a beat said “it sounds like a Puerto Rican talking to his car: ‘Jour a lemon.'”
When I was a kid I said it as JOR- a- lemon. Emphasizing the second syllable seems unnatural to me. Ditto Cor-TELL-you; I always thought it was COR-telyu.