Columbia Waterfront District, Brooklyn

In 2012, PortSide created the first free comprehensive guide to the Columbia Waterfront District.  We gave the data to other groups which have continued this work.

Here, the tang of salt air is never far away. The low-rise shoreline of the area offers a big sky feeling with views of blazing sunsets, the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline through the cranes of the Red Hook container terminal. Several Columbia Street bars and restaurants have great sunset views - on the ground floor!

Relax in five community gardens in the Columbia Waterfront or visit Valentino Park in Red Hook for spectacular harbor views and free kayaking with the Red Hook Boaters. 

Listen to bluegrass at the Jalopy Theatre. 

The historic waterfront neighborhoods to the south of  Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Columbia Waterfront District and Red Hook, are linked by the Brooklyn Greenway  (which is where the Greenway was born). 

The Columbia Waterfront District is a thin ribbon lying between the Red Hook container port and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.  It has glorious end of day light and harbor views.  Red Hook is a storied peninsula, only a mile square, bounded by water on three sides.

The two quirky neighborhoods are part of Brooklyn's creative crescent, the kind of place where a garden center and furniture designer team up to make a pop-up gallery.   Businesses here range from urban chicken keeping to container ship engine repair with a lot of quality dining, design and crafts in between.

The two neighborhoods were once one, before some realtor name changes; and are re-uniting. 

More on Red Hook in Red Hook WaterStories, a digital maritime museum and in-depth guide to Red Hook, Brooklyn. Red Hook WaterStories tells NYC maritime story in microcosm. This is version 1.0. More to come!