The terminal was subsequently leased out and used for various purposes, including as a dock, a military prison, and a storage space for drugs and alcohol during Prohibition.

[11] The railroad tracks connected to four car floats and a large rail yard along the western shore of Bay Ridge, to the south of Brooklyn Army Terminal.

[3] To save money and to reduce the use of steel, the structures were built out of reinforced poured in place concrete using wooden forms.

[20] The next year, a law passed by Congress gave the United States Shipping Board access to all piers that the Army was not using.

[21] In 1923, the federal government paid $2.4 million to the estate of William C. Langley, whose plot between 61st and 63rd Streets had been seized five years earlier to make way for the Brooklyn Army Base.

[21] Starting in 1920, during Prohibition, two vaults on warehouse A's third and sixth floors were used to stock illicit alcoholic beverages, as well as narcotics.

Described by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as the "largest vault built anywhere for the storage of dangerous drugs", the room measured several hundred feet in each direction.

[26] By the next year, civic leaders were suggesting that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey take over the operations of the piers at Brooklyn Army Base.

[30] The Brooklyn Army Terminal was the largest military supply base in the United States through World War II.

[34] A rigorous safety program, enacted after the war, resulted in an 85% decrease in industrial accidents at Brooklyn Army Terminal.

The first boat carrying American World War II casualties back to the United States arrived in San Francisco in October 1947, whereupon the bodies were transported cross-country to Brooklyn Army Base.

[32] During the late 1950s, the base received Hungarian Revolution refugees, as well as victims of a 1956 crash between the SS Andrea Doria and the MS Stockholm.

[39] In 1958, Private Elvis Presley sailed from Brooklyn Army Base to Germany alongside 1,170 other soldiers in the 3rd Armored Division.

Immediately after the announcement, local officials and labor union leaders started advocating to save the military base from closure.

[41][42] Only the military function would be decommissioned, and 90 percent of civilian workers at Brooklyn Army Terminal would retain their jobs after the base was closed.

Some of the base's remaining activities would be relocated to the nearby Federal Office Building at 29th Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

[48] A dispute arose between local business owners, who wanted a large post office facility in the terminal, and the city.

[50] Afterward, the city continued to lease part of the base, and in turn, sublet the space to private companies.

[56] Army shipping activities were permanently moved to Bayonne starting in 1974, saving the federal government $2 million per year.

According to New York City Economic Development Commissioner Kenneth Schuman, after a tentative deal was struck with Helmsley-Spear, Inc., the U.S. General Services Administration rejected the sale price that the regional office had agreed to, and further talks between the city government and Helmsley-Spear were put on hold.

[65] In September of that year, Helmsley-Spear Inc. CEO Harry Helmsley announced that he was withdrawing the company from a tentative deal to sublet the Brooklyn Army Terminal from the city.

[66][67] The withdrawal came after a disagreement over the lease terms when the city found out that Harry Helmsley, a partner in the company, was in the final stages of selling the Gair Industrial Buildings for development into a residential and commercial complex five miles to the south along the Brooklyn waterfront.

[1][71] The city government began completely renovating building B's northern half in 1985, adding 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) of new leasable space.

[75] After the renovations were complete, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) started leasing the property as a center for dozens of light manufacturing, warehousing and back-office businesses,[33] with rents averaging $3.75 per square foot.

[77] Its location outside the terminal was a temporary measure, necessitated because residents of neighborhoods along the East River objected to the barge's presence.

The Brooklyn Army Terminal had 100 companies that collectively employed 3,800 workers, but the city projected that an additional 1,000 jobs would be added once leases were granted for all of the newly renovated space.

[103][104] A fast ferry service from Brooklyn Army Terminal to Manhattan was first proposed in 1994 as a way to revitalize Sunset Park.

[105] This ferry service was operating by late 1997, bringing increased economic activity to the Brooklyn Army Terminal area as a result.

[108] In 2008, New York Water Taxi established a route between Pier 11 and Breezy Point, Queens, with a stop at Brooklyn Army Terminal.

[110] In the aftermath of subway disruptions arising from Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, SeaStreak began running a route from Rockaway Park, Queens, to Pier 11 and the East 34th Street ferry terminal.