Aerial Tramway Proposed to Connect Brooklyn, Manhattan

By on September 16, 2014 5:16 pm in Fulton Ferry Historic District, News, Other Brooklyn, Real Estate, Transportation

According to Crain’s New York Business, at the recent Massey Knakal Brooklyn Real Estate Summit, Daniel Levy, head of CityRealty, proposed a system of aerial tramways, similar to the existing Roosevelt Island Tramway, that would connect Brooklyn to Manhattan as well as linking various places along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts. One segment of the proposed tramway, called the East River Skyway, would connect the Brooklyn Navy Yard to DUMBO (although the photo below shows it stopping at Fulton Ferry Landing), and from there go across the East River to the South Street Seaport. Other segments would connect the Navy Yard to Williamsburg, Williamsburg to the Lower East Side, Williamsburg to Greenpoint, Greenpoint to Long Island City, and Long Island City to Roosevelt Island, where it would connect to the existing tramway between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan.

According to the photo map above, the segment linking the Fulton Ferry Landing to the South Street Seaport and to the Navy Yard, shown in red, would be the third, and final, phase of the tramway’s construction.


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  • johnny cakes

    Please pass the bong.

  • Mary

    Well, the park now houses a Carousel, Tilt-a-Bridge, Ferries Ahoy, and concession stands. Why not add Aero Trams? Next gimmick: The Brooklyn Eye?..

  • HicksOnHicks

    The article fails to answer this burning question: Why?

  • http://www.incase.org Peter Myers

    all of these projects link to affluent BH and & Dumbo. That’s a tiny part of Brooklyn. How about a ferry from Bay Ridge?

  • johnny cakes

    Someone stands to make a ton of money off it. That’s always the reason. Follow the money.

  • Doug Biviano

    We’re going to start a new group called Tramways Not Hospitals! because that’s what’s most important to our communities…

  • Mary

    Ferries for people who actually LIVE in Brooklyn/Queens? Yes!

  • cindy s

    Johnny C and Doug are 100% right
    Its the money and its the out of
    control priorities. But FIRST of all
    How do you SECURE any system
    like this. This is absolute BOMB
    BAIT. Not to mention the liability
    for NYC/NYS.

  • Greg

    I’ll come across as the naive one here: why is this so bad? It seems like a *far* cheaper and more nimble opportunity to expand transit capacity than, e.g., digging new subway tunnels. It connects areas that aren’t easily connected today. And we have a successful precedent with the Roosevelt Island Tram.

    I’m not saying “do it!”, but I don’t understand why it’s being dismissed so easily. It doesn’t seem *that* out there to me.

  • cindy s

    We need to examine all the
    available tech available Tram
    is old. How problem prone &
    real cost to run once built?
    A TON of great transportation
    Tech is begging for funding.
    We need to future as well as
    security think in something
    Like this….

  • lunchguy

    Greg, I agree with you. The Navy Yard’s a neat area, and making it easier for employees to get to work there (by way of public transportation) is a good idea. Using the Navy Yard as a hub between North Brooklyn neighborhoods and the downtown/Heights/Dumbo area would replicate by public transportation what already exists for cars (the BQE).

    That being said, buses seem like a more logical and cost effective way of expanding the public transportation options to, from, and through the Navy Yard area.

  • former DHS security consultant

    It’s not a meaningful security risk. A tram is actually easier to secure than comparable transportation hubs and routes, all of which have more stations, access points, and weaknesses to be exploited. A tramway has fewer access points to secure and no intra-route access points. A tram also holds fewer passengers than does a subway (i.e., it’s a less attractive target for a terrorist).

    I’d be interested to know if you can find any documentation or news reports concerning the Roosevelt Island Tramway. To my knowledge, that’s never been identified as a special or unique security risk.

    If you can point to a single incident in the United States in this century of anyone launching a shoulder-fired rocket or missile at a civilian or military target, please let us know. Otherwise, I think your suggestion that it’s “bomb bait” exaggerates A) the ability of terrorists to launch those sorts of attacks, and B) the likelihood of their choosing an aerial tram in lieu of existing landmarks like skyscrapers, bridges, and other targets.

  • Tommy Q.

    Aren’t there plans afoot to run ferry service to Industry City? I realize that’s not the same as Bay Ridge, but it’s suggestive of some ferry service being considered for neighborhoods farther South and close to the Belt Parkway.

  • David on Middagh

    I can’t tell if “cindy s” is a troll or merely wrong about everything, and I’m not sure that calling a proposed transit option “bomb bait” is anything like shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater, but I’m flagging the post, anyway, and invite others to do the same if they, too, feel trolled.

  • Joe A

    Because the default knee jerk reaction to anything around these parts is cynical naysaying.

  • Joe A

    I don’t think she is a troll. Just not the swiftest canoe in the river that’s all.

  • Joe A

    One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. But you knew that right?

  • William Spier

    Huh? This has a about as good a chance of happening as Massey Knackal has selling a piece of real estate that someone really wants. Brilliant.

  • cindy s

    Just a note on my earlier security
    Comment. The first consideration
    Always has to be public safety AND
    there is a pervasive willingness in
    Many media and public circles to
    Increase the use of an area while
    NOT INCREASING THE PUBLIC
    SAFETY PERSONNEL OR FUNDING!
    OH, SO I’m some kind of “troll” for
    observing that? There are real to my
    View dangers with a project like this.
    And..who exactly has been allowed to
    come forward without examination
    As a DHS consultant here?

  • Andrew Porter

    The heck with the tram. Put in a zip-line. Exhilarating ride, except when it’s raining.