NYC Ferry’s Brooklyn Navy Yard stop debuts today

As of today, the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be slightly more accessible to the public: A new NYC Ferry stop has opened at Dock 72, where a massive building soon to be occupied by WeWork is on the rise.

The new ferry stop is situated along the Astoria route, which connects Queens to lower Manhattan with stops in Long Island City, Roosevelt Island, and East 34th Street along the way. The Navy Yard stop will make the route a bit circuitous; it’s between Wall Street (at Pier 11) and East 34th Street. But it will also provide a new, direct link between the former shipbuilding site and other boroughs—and, according to the head of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, it’s the “first ferry stop at a dedicated job center.”

The ferry slip’s location, at Dock 72, is accessible from the Navy Yard’s entrance at Flushing and Vanderbilt avenues; the best way for people to access it from the street is through Building 77, the former manufacturing hub that now has a food hall at its base.

The Navy Yard is currently in the midst of a major expansion, with several new vertical manufacturing buildings soon to be in the works as part of a new, 30-year master plan. That’s in addition to a new building, soon to be home to the city’s first Wegmans, that will replace the former 19th-century houses that made up Admiral’s Row.

NYC Ferry is also in the midst of a major expansion, with stops in Staten Island, Coney Island, and the Bronx due to open within the next two years. Still, questions about the heavily subsidized ferry system—who benefits most from it, who should control the system, and whether it’s a true solution to New Yorkers’ transit woes—remain.