Pier 63

Before the manicured green lawns and carousel you see today, this stretch of the waterfront served a gritty, industrial purpose. In the nineteenth century, the site housed a bustling terminal for the Pavonia Ferry, which shuttled passengers and goods across the Hudson River to Jersey City. After the ferry terminal was demolished in the middle of the twentieth century, the pier transitioned into a freight transfer station for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, where heavy boxcars were shifted from river barges to local transport.