Red Hook

Waterfront district of northwest Brooklyn, New York City. Red Hook is situated on the far side Buttermilk Channel from Governor's Island, in Upper New York Bay. Formerly the site of a thriving docks, it went into decline after the arrival of containerized shipping took trade away to Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. The area remains depressed.

Separated from the rest of Brooklyn by the Gowanus Canal, Red Hook (Dutch, Roode Hoeke, or ‘Red Point’) was a spit of land named in the 17th century after the colour of its soil. From the 1840s the area was heavily developed, with docks and artificial basins covering the original shoreline. It became a major port, home to maritime unions and to a population of largely Italian dockworkers. It also gained a reputation for organized crime; Al Capone's career began here. Government improvement schemes in the 1930s efforts included large-scale housing projects; later, in the 1950s and 1960s, parts of the area were renamed Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill in an attempt to escape Red Hook's notoriety.