[5] The facility was planned to accommodate eight planes loading or unloading at a time and included ramps that allowed seaplanes to taxi out of the water to the terminal or parking areas, a dock for flying boats, and a turntable.

[10][11] The Brooklyn Times-Union speculated that construction was initially rushed because due to the receipt of a bid from an airline to operate a seaplane service between New York and Boston that summer.

[9] In May 1936, engineers from the Dock Department estimated that the new seaplane base could open that August and noted that it did not need to be fully completed for the first passengers because initial volumes were expected to be light and there had been no further developments in the proposed airline service to Boston.

[7] On October 31, 1936, Keystone Airlines began providing seaplane service to Bainbridge Street Wharf on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, but operated out of the Midtown Skyport.

[20] The facility was leased to Gulf Oil Corporation, which relocated and modernized its auto service station near the end of East 23rd Street as part of the pier redevelopment project.

[22] In the early 1970s, residents of the nearby Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartment complexes began urging the city to shut down the seaplane base over noise concerns.

[23] The city's Marine and Aviation Department issued directives in 1972 requiring seaplanes to taxi out as least 500 feet (150 m) from the shoreline before beginning their takeoff run to reduce the noise the aircraft were causing in waterfront areas.

[24] Local residents continued in their efforts to close the seaplane base and by 1974 gained the support of Ed Koch, who was serving as the representative of New York's 18th congressional district, and Ethan Eldon, the Commissioner of the city's Department of Air Resources.

[23][25] Later that year, an agreement was reached between local residents and the Marine and Aviation Department to reduce the noise limit to 80 dB and also require aircraft using the seaplane base to have noise-reducing propellers.

[26] Initial tests were conducted on a seaplane in the East River using a three-bladed propeller developed by DeVore Aviation Corporation in January 1975, but the results of the noise measurements did not impress city officials.

[30][31] The application for the new terminal failed to advance and Seaplane Shuttle Transportation ended all of its flights in 1977, citing the lack of a landing site in Midtown Manhattan as one of the reasons contributing to the company's decision to discontinue operations.