I did an energy audit at Industry City in Brooklyn, a series of warehouse/mixed-use buildings dating from the 1920s. I walked all of the tunnels between the buildings and operated and monitored the building boilers. There had been a central, coal-fired steam plant, now disused. Underground, I found steam-powered fire hydrant booster pumps, still in great condition. A wonderful tour of industrial archeology.
One of my favorite areas of Brooklyn. I deliver everyday to the area right across the street. I love hanging out there and seeing the grain silos and the ships.
Regarding NYC grain business' decline, it probably didn't help when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, allowing international traffic to get into the Great Lakes and heart of the country.
@@here_we_go_again2571 On the other hand it has much greater capacity than Erie Canal that would be designed IV Class in Europe which can handle less than 1500 tons per barge given bit wider locks and greater draft of of ships on Erie canal, well maybe some 2500 tons per barge it could be. That is perhaps less than one freight train in North America and still about the same as one train in Central Europe. Tonnage of ships on Seaway is much greater.
@@MrToradragon yes, it allowed invasive species to get into the great lakes, and as a result in all adjesent waterbodies! The government did a great job at ruining an entire eco-system!
I currently go to Pratt's school of architecture and we're working with an organization in the area (you can see the barge they're based on in many of the pics used). Their director is actually the owner of the land that the Redhook grain elevator is on and he is so vehemently against building housing in the area! Apparently he threatened a lawsuit against a Columbia professor who posed a residential project on the land.
Here in Sydney Australia several grain silos have been converted into apartment complexs . It is possible to keep the general outline & make them into nice apartments 😊
One other major change is that grain exports out of the USA has shifted from the east coast to the west coast to Asia. The grain export hub is along the Columbia River and you can see the barges and ships coming and going on the river. The Columbia river runs in a deep Gorge so you can sit on a hill or cliff face a few hundred feet up and watch the activity below. Very cool area. The Gorge tends to get strong winds but it has been calm every time I visit in summer at least.
The grain terminals were in large part for air ships. New York was the main North American air terminal for thousands of years. We didn't build them and they were not part of the new plan.
@@TunnelSnakesrule13the earliest photos show our cities covered in mud from the mud flood and unoccupied. That would be the Flood of Noah - the re-population of the Earth - we are living in Genesis 1.
Another great video. In the 1980's i was a security guard at Bushey shipyard, and revere sugar which was ajacent to thr grain terminal. Love to see a video on the lost gas tanks that were all over brooklyn and queens
This reminded me of a grain elevator I would always see as a kid as we drove past it on the freeway. It always stood out to me because on top of it was some kind of spider-like structure with a long pipe stretching from that to a window on the upper portion of the building. Not only is it still there from when I last saw it in the late 90s, I believe it still operates to this day.
Grain and oilseed milling industries have moved out of most major cities in the world, I see more and more of these port facilities closed. Trade flows have shifted significantly especially in the last 20 years, once well located facilities find themselves out of position.
Chicagoans might know that our last major grain elevator on S. Damen just got purchased by a developer and will fall to the wrecking ball. Another one bites the dust
Love your content !! As a guy who grew up in the midwest (Illinois), In a rural area, I enjoy much of your content. At 15:10 the pic of 2 trains with a grain elevator, Id bet my last dollar that......THAT I NOW THAT PLACE !!! Its about 80 miles west of Chicago. Keep up the great work !!
This an interesting page of history. I had no idea New York city had grain elevators. Hopefully, a nee use will be fould for this structure in Brooklyn.
I love your optimism, but I believe the city will have them demolished. Most people consider abandoned buildings as an eyesore. Not to mention they tend to attract crime.
Better yet, build a baseball park around 50k-60k in capacity with the elevator as a background to the right outfield. Left outfield would open to the NYC skyline.
Here in the Netherlands there are laws that say a building can't be unused for a long time. If its not maintained properly it needs to get down. That why you will never see things like this here😅
I read Stephen Ambrose’s book “Wild Blue”. It is about American airplane bombers during wwIl. In about 1943, they established a base in Italy. The town was called: (cheeriolla)sic. Can’t remember how to spell it. Anyway the claim was that the Romans had made large underground grain storage silos there. Supposedly the word cereal came from the name of the town.
There are a couple big old structures that look a lot like this around Ports 80 and 90 in San Francisco, and I was always curious what they might've been. SF was the main cargo port for the west coast from statehood in the 1850's until containerization took over in the 1950's and '60's and it all moved across the bay to Oakland.
At 9:35 to 9:49 marks, you can still see some of the old wooden pier / pylons when the water level is low? I’m assuming from the tide. Did they just let it fall into the water or did they have to tear it down?
I lived is Spokane WA for a while (I’m glad I don’t live there anymore 😖). They had several of these buildings that were all abandoned. Not quite as big as this monster though.
Dude, grain elevators don’t burn unless they are wood cribs. These old concrete ones only go down when they explode. The newer ones use external legal and conveyor systems with monitoring equipment to prevent this.
According to the supposed "neurosurgeon" former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson the Great Pyramids of Giza were not tombs but Grain Silos.
A fan of the show I live 15 minutes away from the longest grain elevator in North America it's in Haysville Kansas I live 45 minutes away from the second longest grain elevator and that one is in Hutchinson Kansas I was 13 years old when the Haysville grain elevator blow up a lot of people was lucky the gas plant nothing happened to it because it's right next to it there is a UA-cam video of the grain elevator explosion in Kansas I like the ones from the late 1800's like them tall skinny ones
Wow, grain elevators mysteriously burning down, kinda like food processing plants mysteriously burning down or having airplanes crash into them in recent months. How ironic.
Mills and other such facilities are prone to fires due to fine flammable dust that is created during handling of grain. Then all that is needed is either negligence or some technical malfunction and the whole facility is ablaze.
These buildings should be repurposed for housing for the homeless people to eradicate and resolve the homeless crisis instead of doing absolutely nothing but raise taxes to feed and house illegals
There are still a bunch of grain elevators in Buffalo NY . A lot of them are still being used. There’s also silo city . I love kayaking along these giant structures. If your ever near Buffalo NY I suggest you see them .
History of grain elevators in the US is incomplete without discussing the importance of Buffalo, NY. The city's grain storage capacity was comparable to Chicago, and major advancements in elevator design happened in Buffalo.
Yeah there is a lot of focus on Chicago when NY likely got it's grain silo inspiration from the place that invented it and was in the same state and canal as them
The grain silos near the Ikea store in Red Hook Brooklyn were used as the backdrop for a scene supposedly taking place in the cornfed midwest in Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe."
I was in Bosnia in 2000 and visited a historic port city called Dubrovnik. They'd preserved their old fortified port from the 1400's along with the city walls and the most important civic building, the granary. It was big enough to hold a full year's supply of grain for the city and was considered a fundamental part of civic planning. Fast forward to present year and most towns would face a famine if the supply chain was cut off for a week.
There are lots of grain elevators in Kansas, so it's interesting to hear the history of them....as well as your continued comparison in "then and now" pictures. I always enjoy these comparisons, so much so that i actually own a few books that feature them (namely Kansas City and Omaha).
I live 15 minutes away from the Haysville one I was still 13 years old when it blow up I live 45 minutes away from the second-longest one in Hutchinson Kansas
I did an energy audit at Industry City in Brooklyn, a series of warehouse/mixed-use buildings dating from the 1920s. I walked all of the tunnels between the buildings and operated and monitored the building boilers. There had been a central, coal-fired steam plant, now disused. Underground, I found steam-powered fire hydrant booster pumps, still in great condition. A wonderful tour of industrial archeology.
One of my favorite areas of Brooklyn. I deliver everyday to the area right across the street. I love hanging out there and seeing the grain silos and the ships.
Regarding NYC grain business' decline, it probably didn't help when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, allowing international traffic to get into the Great Lakes and heart of the country.
St. Lawrence Seaway hurt the Erie Canal.
@@here_we_go_again2571 On the other hand it has much greater capacity than Erie Canal that would be designed IV Class in Europe which can handle less than 1500 tons per barge given bit wider locks and greater draft of of ships on Erie canal, well maybe some 2500 tons per barge it could be. That is perhaps less than one freight train in North America and still about the same as one train in Central Europe. Tonnage of ships on Seaway is much greater.
The grain terminals are thousands of years old. They were not part of the New World plan. People need to WAKE UP - we didn't build them.
@@MrToradragon excellent explanation Sir
@@MrToradragon yes, it allowed invasive species to get into the great lakes, and as a result in all adjesent waterbodies! The government did a great job at ruining an entire eco-system!
I used to drive past this thing while on the BQE all the time and always wondered what it was. This was very informative!!
I used to drive the BQE all the time and always wondered when they'd repave it !
@@siddiqahmad5193😂😂😂
I currently go to Pratt's school of architecture and we're working with an organization in the area (you can see the barge they're based on in many of the pics used). Their director is actually the owner of the land that the Redhook grain elevator is on and he is so vehemently against building housing in the area! Apparently he threatened a lawsuit against a Columbia professor who posed a residential project on the land.
So what’s he thinking of putting there? ?
Here in Sydney Australia several grain silos have been converted into apartment complexs . It is possible to keep the general outline & make them into nice apartments 😊
One other major change is that grain exports out of the USA has shifted from the east coast to the west coast to Asia. The grain export hub is along the Columbia River and you can see the barges and ships coming and going on the river. The Columbia river runs in a deep Gorge so you can sit on a hill or cliff face a few hundred feet up and watch the activity below. Very cool area. The Gorge tends to get strong winds but it has been calm every time I visit in summer at least.
Shipping of the grain in the east shifted to the great lake and st-lawrence
The grain terminals were in large part for air ships. New York was the main North American air terminal for thousands of years. We didn't build them and they were not part of the new plan.
@@togowack Thousands of years?
@@TunnelSnakesrule13the earliest photos show our cities covered in mud from the mud flood and unoccupied. That would be the Flood of Noah - the re-population of the Earth - we are living in Genesis 1.
@@togowack Please elaborate. You have my undivided attention.
Its amazing that so many pictures are still available as a visual for these History videos. Great work!
Another great video. In the 1980's i was a security guard at Bushey shipyard, and revere sugar which was ajacent to thr grain terminal. Love to see a video on the lost gas tanks that were all over brooklyn and queens
I drive past this thing every day. I've been wondering what the story with it was.
This reminded me of a grain elevator I would always see as a kid as we drove past it on the freeway. It always stood out to me because on top of it was some kind of spider-like structure with a long pipe stretching from that to a window on the upper portion of the building. Not only is it still there from when I last saw it in the late 90s, I believe it still operates to this day.
At time 5:47 that is the Great Northern and Pillsbury/ADM grain elevator in Buffalo NY. I have been in both of them. ----Doozer
Many of the grain elevators still exist in Buffalo. I know, I live there.
Interesting as heck like all your other videos
Your postings are so Valuable...thank you so VERY much...your Enthusiasm is Infectious...dgp/uk
I’m wondering about that old freighter tied to the dock. It’s been languishing in that area since the 1990’s.
I love actually explored the inside of it several times!
Grain and oilseed milling industries have moved out of most major cities in the world, I see more and more of these port facilities closed. Trade flows have shifted significantly especially in the last 20 years, once well located facilities find themselves out of position.
Chicagoans might know that our last major grain elevator on S. Damen just got purchased by a developer and will fall to the wrecking ball. Another one bites the dust
I worked right next to it in the construction of the Amazon warehouse. Lot of history in that neighborhood.
Love your content !! As a guy who grew up in the midwest (Illinois), In a rural area, I enjoy much of your content. At 15:10 the pic of 2 trains with a grain elevator, Id bet my last dollar that......THAT I NOW THAT PLACE !!! Its about 80 miles west of Chicago. Keep up the great work !!
This an interesting page of history. I had no idea New York city had grain elevators. Hopefully, a nee use will be fould for this structure in Brooklyn.
I'm not sure there's much else an old grain elevator could be repurposed for…
I love your optimism, but I believe the city will have them demolished. Most people consider abandoned buildings as an eyesore. Not to mention they tend to attract crime.
@@ITSHISTORY They could use them to put the migrants in. Just stack em up like pizza boxes !
I think this huge grain elevator, could be a great History monument!
Better yet, build a baseball park around 50k-60k in capacity with the elevator as a background to the right outfield. Left outfield would open to the NYC skyline.
Thank you
the futures so bright RYAN'S gotta wear shades.
He's too cool for school
@@dchamp1337 i would no joke say he's more informative than my highschool history teacher.
Here in the Netherlands there are laws that say a building can't be unused for a long time. If its not maintained properly it needs to get down. That why you will never see things like this here😅
whats with the sunglasses?
You’ll have to watch the recent live stream to find out …
Too much
Cause he's cool like dat.
Watch live stream where?
I read Stephen Ambrose’s book “Wild Blue”. It is about American airplane bombers during wwIl. In about 1943, they established a base in Italy. The town was called: (cheeriolla)sic. Can’t remember how to spell it. Anyway the claim was that the Romans had made large underground grain storage silos there. Supposedly the word cereal came from the name of the town.
You would definitely love Montréal's story on Silo#5! An identical story of industrial rise and slow decay...
crazy to me that new york were all land is so important still have stuff like this taking up its area.
Look at the Cape Town Silo Hotel and Zeitz Museum to see what can be done with a surplus grain elevator.
There are a couple big old structures that look a lot like this around Ports 80 and 90 in San Francisco, and I was always curious what they might've been. SF was the main cargo port for the west coast from statehood in the 1850's until containerization took over in the 1950's and '60's and it all moved across the bay to Oakland.
Great video. I had no idea this existed
At 9:35 to 9:49 marks, you can still see some of the old wooden pier / pylons when the water level is low? I’m assuming from the tide.
Did they just let it fall into the water or did they have to tear it down?
Nice indoor shades!
I believe better to repurpose build a hotel it has a very strong historical assets. Good view of the location . And the build look very strong
Good Like!.
Thank you.
You should look in to the ship docker there, it has a wild history!
Super interesting, thank you.
new sub here and a proud New yorker,
The Żuraw of Gdańsk is at 14:52 on the right-hand side.
When I worked at AGP in Lincoln Nebraska, they had a fire
I lived is Spokane WA for a while (I’m glad I don’t live there anymore 😖). They had several of these buildings that were all abandoned. Not quite as big as this monster though.
Sweet shades Socash. Badass last name too. Love your vids
We can thank the American immigration authorities of 1905 for the name change 🇺🇸 That’s a part of NY history that impacts me rather directly!
We had a “man” bucking the baler( stood on the wagon with a hay hook, and stacked them up on the wagon. Hot job to say the least
imagine lofts there....$$$$, great idea
Dude, grain elevators don’t burn unless they are wood cribs. These old concrete ones only go down when they explode. The newer ones use external legal and conveyor systems with monitoring equipment to prevent this.
Smoldering grain fires that suddenly reignite are a thing.
I wonder what they could turn them into there must be something so they can be saved from the wrecking ball
According to the supposed "neurosurgeon" former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson the Great Pyramids of Giza were not tombs but Grain Silos.
The shades 😎
I'm surprised it hasn't been turned into million dollar condos 😮
@12:28 How can fire burn a concrete grain silo?
🔥😂
Hea from the grain fire damages and weakens the concrete.
look at what they done to the grain silo in Cape Town South Africa.
Now they have the time capsules full of grains look it up and Oreos too lol
I was there a couple days ago and the first person I thought of was you "I hope he does an episode of this place" 🤣
Seriously?
A fan of the show I live 15 minutes away from the longest grain elevator in North America it's in Haysville Kansas I live 45 minutes away from the second longest grain elevator and that one is in Hutchinson Kansas I was 13 years old when the Haysville grain elevator blow up a lot of people was lucky the gas plant nothing happened to it because it's right next to it there is a UA-cam video of the grain elevator explosion in Kansas I like the ones from the late 1800's like them tall skinny ones
Just another shining example of how financialization of the American economy has led to the collapse of its industrial infrastructure.
Things change weather we like or not .
I'm from that neighborhood. It didn't help having the Gambino's there
...so the building still stands because it was granted a special status some time ago?
I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can... youtube.
The Indians in America also stored grain.
Why the sunglasses? 😎
Come to Kansas, you’ll find one In almost every town
I gotta ask... what's with the shades
As he mentioned in a previous livestream, it's a Stye. Painful things too.
@prudencepineapple9448 it's good to have an answer, thank you
Re the Buffalo comment several of your photos are of Buffalo elevators and the grain elevator was invented in Buffalo
For a moment..I thought the video was hijacked by Max Headroom
What's up with the shades? 😄
love the channel but man those glasses make you look like a blind person 😂
NYC survivalist shock. Wheat Street?
ditch the shades...
It's raised not rised. Spellcheck is your friend.
nice to see us collapsing...
What’s with the sunglasses Ryan? It’s creepy. IMO
Why wear sunglasses indoors??
Drugs
👍👍👍
Он случайно в каком-нибудь фильме не появлялся???
Housing potential 🤔
Please lose the sunglasses. They make you look like Stevie wonder.
Disregard. I did not know you were injured. heal fast brother
It's going to be under water soon
You are kidding right? Canals in the US are new technology? The Romans were using canals in England over a thousand years earlier !
eye surgery?
It was all explained in the live stream
Turn it into the Newyork Mayor,s office ….. with a Sewage Tank above that would be Brilliant would Fit right in ….
Wow, grain elevators mysteriously burning down, kinda like food processing plants mysteriously burning down or having airplanes crash into them in recent months. How ironic.
Mills and other such facilities are prone to fires due to fine flammable dust that is created during handling of grain. Then all that is needed is either negligence or some technical malfunction and the whole facility is ablaze.
@@MrToradragon With the right dust to air ratio it only takes a small spark to generate a very violent explosion.
Why so many farmers have huge grain bins you don’t need these anymore
Soybeans are not a grain.
Its in New York NO ONE CARES 😂
Gov will probably fill them, then one day boom.
These buildings should be repurposed for housing for the homeless people to eradicate and resolve the homeless crisis instead of doing absolutely nothing but raise taxes to feed and house illegals
New apartments and hotels could be built far faster and cheaper than concrete silos can be renovated!
My grandfather built grain elevators all over Iowa in the mid 1900’s. I know a lot about grain elevators! You did a great job.
ok thousands of grain elevators are unused though out amerika. why?
enid has 50 of them, all empty
There are still a bunch of grain elevators in Buffalo NY . A lot of them are still being used. There’s also silo city . I love kayaking along these giant structures. If your ever near Buffalo NY I suggest you see them .
You can still smell the Cheerios still on the water front
They’re like man-made cliffs
History of grain elevators in the US is incomplete without discussing the importance of Buffalo, NY. The city's grain storage capacity was comparable to Chicago, and major advancements in elevator design happened in Buffalo.
he _does_ discuss buffalo's grain elevators.
Buffalo NY invented the grain elevator, and during WW2 the worlds largest grain elevator was built, it still stands to this day.
Yeah there is a lot of focus on Chicago when NY likely got it's grain silo inspiration from the place that invented it and was in the same state and canal as them
I didn’t know that about Buffalo’s history - very interesting! Thanks for sharing!
The grain silos near the Ikea store in Red Hook Brooklyn were used as the backdrop for a scene supposedly taking place in the cornfed midwest in Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe."
The Great Lakes served as the transport conduit for that grain using bulk carrier freighters and before that sailing schooners.
Indeed.
I was in Bosnia in 2000 and visited a historic port city called Dubrovnik. They'd preserved their old fortified port from the 1400's along with the city walls and the most important civic building, the granary. It was big enough to hold a full year's supply of grain for the city and was considered a fundamental part of civic planning. Fast forward to present year and most towns would face a famine if the supply chain was cut off for a week.
Dubrovnik is in Croatia.
Ah yes, the typical Bosnian city of Dubrovnik. Right next to the Czech city of Amsterdam.
@@Tobi-ln9xr As I said, I was in Bosnia (a six month visit for NATO;) but visited Dubrovnik.
I believe you're a time traveler. Your videos are so detailed it's like you were New York City and Chicago when these events happened!
he forgot to remove his futureshades in this video, its how he sees the past & future
Are you in the witness protection program?
There are lots of grain elevators in Kansas, so it's interesting to hear the history of them....as well as your continued comparison in "then and now" pictures. I always enjoy these comparisons, so much so that i actually own a few books that feature them (namely Kansas City and Omaha).
I live 15 minutes away from the Haysville one I was still 13 years old when it blow up I live 45 minutes away from the second-longest one in Hutchinson Kansas
I’m here in southwest Kansas. We call them, Kansas skyscrapers
@@vanpearsall garden city Kansas here we call the Windsor hotel our skyscraper
@@Earl3333 I’ve been by there many times love the architect when things were built the right way
@2:36 speed recovery from the cataract surgery.
LOL