Photo, Print, Drawing West 55th Street & West 56th Street Piers, Hudson River at West Fifty-fifth & West Fifty-sixth Streets, Manhattan, New York County, NY Photos from Survey HAER NY-147

Title

• West 55th Street & West 56th Street Piers, Hudson River at West Fifty-fifth & West Fifty-sixth Streets, Manhattan, New York County, NY

Other Title

• Piers 95 & 96, North River

Names

• Historic American Engineering Record, creator
• Staniford, Charles E.
• Keller, T. F.
• Lenke, M
• Pennsyvania Steel Company
• Snare & Triestee Company
• Olvaney, William J.
• Thomas E. O'Brien Brothers
• Teran, Mahoney, & Monroe
• Murphy, J. S.
• Navigazione Generale Italiana
• Furness, Withy & Company, Ltd.
• Titusville Iron Company
• New York City Department of Ports, International Commerce and Trade, sponsor
• Raber Associates, contractor
• Photo Recording Associates, contractor
• Berger, Norman, researcher
• Criscitello, Douglas, researcher
• Flagg, Thomas R., researcher
• Weinstein, Gerald, photographer
• Raber, Michael S., historian

Created / Published

• Documentation compiled after 1968

Headings

• -  piers (marine landings)
• -  ships
• -  New York--New York County

Latitude / Longitude

• 40.77155,-73.99709

Notes

• -  Significance: The piers at West 55th and West 56th streets are important and rare remains of historic transatlantic commerce in the Port of New York, being two of only three municipal piers built for this traffic which survive with relatively undisturbed original fabric. Between 1897 and 1936, the City of New York built four terminals with twenty-two piers on the Hudson River to accommodate the growing size of ship and retain the port's traditional dominance in the liner trade. Together with the recently-demolished West 57th Street Pier superstructures, the two piers formed the third and most northerly of the four terminals. Completely rebuilt c1914-17 from older piers, the three piers followed the Gansevoort and Chelsea piers of 1897-1908, and generally predated the terminal completed in 1936 between 44th and 52nd streets. Typical of municipal and some private pier and piershed construction during the period 1910-1925, the piers from 55th to 57th streets also featured bulkhead shed joining the pierheads and presenting a unified street facade. Similar in general architectural design to the bulkhead sheds of the Gansevoort and Chelsea piers, these three piers were somewhat transitional in using facade materials and proportions similar to those of the later liner piers just to the south, which substituted four-bay head houses for bulkhead sheds. The 55th Street Pier is also of historic engineering interest for its early use of hinged cargo beam design, to relieve stress on cargo mast systems. Following terminal completion, Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd. and Navigazione Generale Italiana (Italia) were the principal liner tenants for five decades, until airline and container traffic largely eliminated Port of New York liner traffic during the 1960s. Together with Pier 54 in the Chelsea Section, the West 55th and West 56th street piers stand today as mute witnesses to the heyday of the 20th century liner trade.
• -  Survey number: HAER NY-147
• -  Building/structure dates: 19q1 Initial Construction
• -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1930- 1932 Subsequent Work
• -  Building/structure dates: 1937-1939 Subsequent Work
• -  Building/structure dates: 1942 Subsequent Work
• -  Building/structure dates: 1949 Subsequent Work
• -  Building/structure dates: 1953 Subsequent Work
• -  Building/structure dates: 1962 Subsequent Work

Medium

• Photo(s): 38
• Data Page(s): 39
• Photo Caption Page(s): 3

Call Number/Physical Location

• HAER NY,31-NEYO,147-

Source Collection

• Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

Repository

• Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Control Number

• ny1361

Rights Advisory

• No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

Online Format

• image
• pdf