There is a building in Sunset Park that most New Yorkers have never heard of, and almost none have stepped inside. It is bigger than Grand Central. It was designed by the same architect as the Woolworth Building. During World War II, more than 25,000 people worked there, and Army jeeps drove between its floors on internal roads with posted speed limits. Elvis Presley shipped out from its pier in 1958. And today, you can ride a $4.50 ferry to walk through its atrium any day of the year, sunrise to sunset, for free.
Let me show you something incredible.
The Cathedral Cass Gilbert Built for the Army
The Brooklyn Army Terminal opened in 1919, and the moment you walk into Building B’s atrium, you understand why people who know about it talk about it the way other people talk about Grand Central. It is a poured-concrete cathedral. Eight stories of balconies stack up around an open central well, with a glass skylight floating impossibly far overhead. Cantilevered loading platforms jut into the void at every level — frozen mid-reach, like the building is still expecting another shipment.
Cass Gilbert designed it. The same Cass Gilbert who gave Manhattan the Woolworth Building. When he took the Army Terminal commission, it was the largest poured-concrete structure in the world and contained the era’s biggest elevator installation. The scale isn’t decorative. It was functional: trains pulled directly into the building on tracks, jeeps drove between floors on internal ramps, and at peak operation in WWII, two million tons of supplies and three million troops passed through here on their way to the European and Pacific theaters.
You stand in that atrium now, and it is mostly silent. A few photographers. A worker pushing a cart. The light coming down through the skylight onto concrete that has been holding up sky for over a century. It feels like you have stumbled into a film set that everyone forgot to dismantle.
Where Elvis Shipped Out
On September 22, 1958, Private Elvis Presley boarded the USS General George M. Randall at the Brooklyn Army Terminal pier and sailed for Germany. There is photo documentation of him standing on the gangway in his Army greens, waving to a crowd of screaming teenagers held back behind temporary fencing on the dock. The pier is still there. You can walk out to the end of it.
That is not the only story the building is keeping. During Prohibition, the federal government used the terminal as one of its alcohol storage and disposal warehouses, and at any given moment it reportedly held around twenty million dollars worth of seized contraband. The complex was a port of embarkation, a manufacturing hub, a refugee processing site, and — for a brief, strange chapter — the place where the Army stored confiscated booze it could not legally drink.
The Ferry Ride Most New Yorkers Don’t Take
Here is the part nobody tells you. The NYC Ferry’s South Brooklyn route stops directly at the Brooklyn Army Terminal pier. The ride from Wall Street’s Pier 11 takes about twenty minutes and costs the standard ferry fare — currently $4.50 for a single ride. You sit on the top deck, you watch Lower Manhattan recede, you pass under the Verrazzano in the distance, and then you dock at a pier where Elvis stood.
This is one of the great underused public experiences in the five boroughs. The Rockaway route also stops at BAT, which means on a summer Saturday you can pair a morning at the beach with an afternoon walking through a building that looks like Piranesi designed it. Most people getting on these ferries are commuters or beachgoers. Almost nobody is going to BAT specifically. That is what makes it perfect.
What You’ll Actually Find There
The public spaces at Brooklyn Army Terminal are open 365 days a year, sunrise to sunset, free of charge. You can wander Building B’s atrium. You can walk the waterfront promenade. Pier 4 is open to the public along its north edge, and fishing is allowed there — bring a rod and a permit if you want to actually do this. The views back across the harbor toward the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan are some of the best in the city, and you will likely have them mostly to yourself.
Turnstile Tours runs scheduled historical tours that take you deeper into the complex — into spaces normally closed to the public, with the Prohibition warehouse stories and the WWII operational history laid out in detail. Worth checking their schedule before you go.
Insider Tip
Time your ferry to arrive in late afternoon. The atrium light is best when the sun is angled low through the western-facing skylight, and the waterfront promenade sunset back toward Lower Manhattan is the kind of view people pay $200 a head for at rooftop bars. You are getting it for the price of a single ferry ticket, with about forty other people on the entire premises.
How to Visit
Address: Brooklyn Army Terminal, 80 58th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11220
Public Hours: Open 365 days a year, sunrise to sunset, free
Nearest Subway: 59th Street (R train), about a 10-minute walk west
By Ferry (recommended): NYC Ferry South Brooklyn route or Rockaway route, BAT stop. Ride from Pier 11/Wall Street is approximately 20 minutes. Single ride fare currently around $4.50 — check ferry.nyc for current pricing and schedules.
Tours: Turnstile Tours offers guided historical tours — check turnstiletours.com for current schedule and reservation requirements
What to bring: Camera. The atrium light deserves it. Warm layers if it’s not summer — the waterfront wind off the harbor is colder than you think.
This is the New York that rewards the curious. A Cass Gilbert cathedral hiding in plain sight, a public ferry that gets you there for the price of a coffee, and a building that has been waiting since 1919 for someone to come look at it. Go look at it.
