Manhattan Bridge Lookout

The intersection of Washington and Water Streets offers a view that has become a visual shorthand for New York City. You are standing at the heart of what gives the Dumbo neighborhood its name, which is an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. From this precise vantage point, the massive, blue-steel girders of the Manhattan Bridge frame a perfect window through which you can spot the Empire State Building standing in the distance. The towering red-brick warehouses flanking the street were once part of a dense industrial complex known as Gairville, named after Robert Gair, who revolutionized the shipping industry here by inventing the mass-produced cardboard box. While today this spot is world-famous for its cinematic symmetry, it was once the engine room of a waterfront that defined the city's manufacturing might.