South Ferry (Manhattan)

The name "South Ferry" derives from a more southerly route of service than previous ferry lines between what were then the separate cities of New York and Brooklyn, rather than from being at the southern tip of Manhattan.

As the City of Brooklyn grew, the area south of Atlantic Avenue, known as South Brooklyn, began to become developed, but the area lacked easy access to the ferry terminals in the northern parts of that city.

Calls for a new ferry on a more southerly route were first brought up before the New York City Council in 1825, the proposal being commonly known as the "New South Ferry" since 1826,[1] but progress stalled until the issue was taken up by the City of Brooklyn in 1833.

[2] The South Ferry Company established the South Ferry on May 16, 1836 to connect Lower Manhattan to the foot of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and the month-old Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad (renamed Atlantic Avenue Railroad, later the Atlantic Avenue Railroad's streetcar line, later still part of the South Side Railroad of Long Island, now the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road) through the Cobble Hill Tunnel.

[3][4] South Ferry is served by several New York City Subway stations.