DUMBO Manhattan Bridge View

The intersection of Washington and Water Streets offers a precise, natural frame for the Manhattan Bridge, but the red-brick canyon you see today was once the center of an industrial revolution. This was the home of the Robert Gair Company, where Scottish immigrant Robert Gair accidentally invented the mass-produced cardboard box in the late nineteenth century. The simple technique of cutting and creasing paperboard simultaneously transformed packaging and solidified this neighborhood as a manufacturing powerhouse long before it became a destination for photographers.