The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) is an intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex in the

Port of New York and New Jersey The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. It includes the system of navigable wate ...

. It is located along the

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in ...

, between 29th and 39th Streets in the Sunset Park and Greenwood Heights neighborhoods of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. The site is adjacent to Bush Terminal and Industry City, which respectively lie directly to the south and east. A recycling and waste transfer facility managed by

Sims Metal Management Sims Limited (formerly Sims Metal Management Limited) is a global environmental services conglomerate, operating through a number of divisions, with a focus on: (a) Ferrous and Non-ferrous metal recycling, (b) enterprise data destruction and c ...

is the major tenant. In May 2018, the city contracted partners to activate the largely unused terminal.

Early ferry service

The New York and South Brooklyn Ferry operated a ferry from the Battery Maritime Building (formerly known as Municipal Ferry Pier) to the

South Brooklyn South Brooklyn is a historic term for a section of the former City of Brooklyn – now the New York City borough of Brooklyn – encompassing what are now the Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor ...

/39th Street Ferry Terminal, where rail transfer (to the South Brooklyn Railway) was possible until 1935. Formerly, a

Staten Island Ferry The Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry route operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. The ferry's single route runs through New York Harbor between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island, with ferr ...

route ran between the ferry slip at 39th Street within Bush Terminal, and the

St. George Terminal St. George Terminal is a ferry, railway, bus, and park and ride transit center in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island, New York City. It is located at the intersection of Richmond Terrace and Bay Street, near Staten Island Borough H ...

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

. The ferry route was discontinued in 1946 after a fire at St. George Terminal.

Rail service

Adjacent to the Bush Terminal it is served by

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a ...

and transloading activities of New York New Jersey Rail via the 65th Street Yard which also connects to the

Bay Ridge Branch The Bay Ridge Branch is a rail line owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway in New York City. It is the longest freight-only line of the LIRR, connecting the Montauk Branch and CSX Transpor ...

, operated by the

New York Connecting Railroad The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pacific Railway, Providence ...

. Rail infrastructure improvements along 1st Avenue completed in 2012 connected the yard to SBMT. Other investments in infrastructure included a new break-bulk rail spur along the 39th Street shed, two new rail sidings for

auto rack An autorack, also known as an auto carrier (also car transporter outside the US), is a specialized piece of railroad rolling stock used to transport automobiles and light trucks. Autoracks are used to transport new vehicles from factories to ...

transloading, and a new rail connection to the SIMS facility at the 29th Street Pier. SBMT is also connected along the South Brooklyn Railway (ROW) to 36th–38th Street Yard. In 2012, the interchange with New York New Jersey Rail, LLC at Second Avenue was refurbished and a new ramp was installed at the 38th Street Yard at Fourth Avenue to allow receipt of new R156 locomotives and other subway rolling stock that are delivered on flat cars.

Waste management

subsidiary Sims Municipal Recycling (SMR) managed construction of a new 11-acre recycling center at SBMT from 2010 to 2013. SMR worked with geotechnical engineers to develop structural fill blends using “mole rock” from NYC tunneling projects mixed with recycled glass aggregate (RGA). More than 5,000 tons of RGA were blended with 20,000 tons of mole rock and used to elevate sections of the site by 4 feet, thereby protecting buildings and equipment against sea level rise and storm surges.

Wind turbines

In January 2015, SIMS inaugurated the city's only commercial-scale

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. W ...

at the recycling center. Built by Northern Power Systems at the cost of about $750,000, the tall turbine has the capacity to produce 100 kilowatts, or 4% of the center's power needs. In January 2021, NY Governor

Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...

announced that the site would be developed to include a wind turbine assembly plant to be partially funded by New York State. Turbines manufactured there will be used in constructing three offshore wind farms off the east end of Long Island. South Fork Wind Farm, Beacon Wind and Sunrise Wind are projected to be supplied by 2025 from the new plant, built with $200 million in state funding and $200 million in matching grants. Part of a $29 billion 'Green Initiative' plan for NYS. The project is expected to create 1,200 new manufacturing jobs in Sunset Park.

Auto processing

Auto processing, the customization of imported automobiles, is done at the terminal at a scaled-down assembly plant where much of the work is done by hand using simple tools. Quality control inspections are done, repairs are made, and accessories – such as floor mats, GPS systems, satellite radios, alloy wheels and roof racks – are installed. The facility at SBMT was operated by the Axis Group. which filed bankruptcy in 2012. Plans by the

New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a nonprofit corporation whose stated mission is to "leverage the city’s assets to create beneficial jobs that drive growth. This ensures equitable and sustainable development across al ...

(NYCEDC) to redevelop and expand the auto processing have been bogged down since 2014.

Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal

The SBMT was designated as part of

America's Marine Highway America's Marine Highway is a United States Department of Transportation (DOT) initiative, aimed to use the United States' of navigable waterways to alleviate traffic and wear to the nation's highways caused by tractor trailer traffic.

in 2015. In 2018, Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SSBMT) was established and operations turned over the Red Hook Container Terminal operators.

35th Street pier fire (1956)

On December 3, 1956, the area was the site of one of the largest explosions in New York City history. A fire on the Luckenbach Pier at the end of 35th St reached 37,000 pounds of highly explosive Primacord, resulting in an explosion that killed 10 people and injured 247.

References

{{Brooklyn Transportation buildings and structures in Brooklyn Ports and harbors of New York (state) Railway freight terminals in the United States Sunset Park, Brooklyn Port of New York and New Jersey Wind power in New York (state)