Tugboats in New York City

The tugboat is a New York City icon. Once all steam powered, they soon became iconic, starting with the first hull, the paddler tug Rufus W. King of 1828.

New York Harbor at the confluence of the East River, Hudson River, and Atlantic Ocean is among the world's largest natural harbors and was chosen in the 17th century as the site of New Amsterdam for its potential as a port. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 to the upper Hudson River ensured that New York would be the center of trade for the Eastern Seaboard, and as a result, the city boomed. At the port's peak in the period of 1900-1950, ships moved millions of tons of freight, immigrants, millionaires, and GI service men serving in wars.

Shepherding the traffic around the harbor were hundreds of tugs; over 700 steam tugs worked the harbor in 1929. Firms such as McAllister, and Moran Tugs came into the business. Cornelius Vanderbilt started his empire with a sailboat and went on to greatness with the New York Central Railroad, incidentally owning many tugs.

After the American Civil War, New York became a focal point of railroads including the Erie, Pennsylvania, B & O, Lackawanna, and Long Island. New York's geography, with Manhattan separated from the main part of the continent by the large Hudson River, presented a problem. Ferries took people over to the New Jersey side to board westbound trains. Freight was a more difficult problem which was solved by the car float, or car barge which would take loaded boxcars into town for unloading at freight sheds. Each railroad had its own freight sheds. Over 600,000 railcars were moved around the port annually. 19th century pictures of New York show the island bristling with hundreds of piers. Freight was manually unloaded from the boxcars, still on the barge, and wheeled by dolly across ramps onto the freight shed. To move the large number of barges, steam tugs were used. Each railway had dozens of tugs and the harbor was a hive of activity. New York was also a busy international port with large ocean ships docking, which needed 'ship assist' tugs to aid in berthing. A ship as large as the RMS Queen Mary needed many tugs. Passenger ferries to Brooklyn, New Jersey, Staten Island and Long Island, however, didn't need tugs.

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