The Roosevelt Street Ferry was a ferry route connecting Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 and Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...

, New York City, United States, joining Roosevelt Street (Manhattan)

Roosevelt Street (Manhattan)

Roosevelt Street, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, was a street which existed from the colonial period to the early 1950s,running from Pearl Street at Park Row southeast to South Street....

 and Broadway (Brooklyn)

Broadway (Brooklyn)

Broadway is an avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that extends from the East River in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in a southeasterly direction to East New York for a length of 4.32 miles . It was named for Broadway in Manhattan. The East New York terminus is a complicated...

 across the East River

East River

The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...

.

History

The ferry was established on April 30, 1853, between Roosevelt Street and Bridge Street in Downtown Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City , and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn...

. Being unable to compete with the one-cent fare adopted by the Brooklyn Union Ferry Company in November 1850, it was sold to the new Union Ferry Company of Brooklyn

Union Ferry Company of Brooklyn

The Union Ferry Company of Brooklyn was a ferry company, operating routes across the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York City, United States.-History:...

 (the successor to the Brooklyn Union) in December 1853.

George Law

George Law (financier)

George Law an American financier, b. in Jackson, Washington Co., N.Y., 25 October 1806; d. in New York city, 18 November 1881.- Early life :George Law was born in Jackson, New York and his only early education had been obtained in a winter night school. At age of eighteen he left his father's farm...

's Brooklyn Ferry Company introduced a ferry between James Slip and South Tenth Street in Williamsburg on May 4, 1857. Effective March 28, 1859, the Brooklyn landing of the ferry was moved from South Tenth Street to Broadway, where the company's Division Avenue Ferry landed.

The Union Ferry Company stopped running the Roosevelt Street-Bridge Street route in 1859, and sold the Roosevelt Slip to the Brooklyn Ferry Company, which moved its Broadway-James Slip ferry to Roosevelt later that year. In early 1860, the Brooklyn Ferry Company and the Long Island Ferry Company (Peck Slip Ferry

Peck Slip Ferry

The Peck Slip Ferry was a ferry route connecting Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, United States, joining Peck Slip and Broadway across the East River....

) agreed to consolidate operations, and the Peck Slip route was abandoned in late 1860.