Williamsburg, Brooklyn: Sugar, Shipyards, and a Bridge

The Domino Sugar Refinery on Kent Avenue is the industry that outlasted all the others. Rebuilt after an 1882 fire, it employed more than 4,500 workers at its 1919 peak and ran continuously until it ceased operations in 2004. Its Pan, Filter, and Finishing House was designated a New York City landmark in 2007 and has since been converted to roughly 460,000 square feet of private office space. The exterior is landmarked and plainly visible from Domino Park, which was built on the refinery grounds and carries 21 preserved columns from the Raw Sugar Warehouse into an elevated walkway.

The Williamsburg Bridge went up between 1896 and 1903 under chief engineer Leffert L. Buck, with Gustav Lindenthal overseeing the final phase, and opened on December 19, 1903 at a cost of $11 million. Its Brooklyn approach was deliberately routed to avoid the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building, and building it required relocating roughly 10,000 people.

The Williamsburg Houses were the next displacement. Designed by a team led by William Lescaze under chief architect Richmond Shreve, the complex was built between 1936 and 1938 under the Public Works Administration; 568 buildings were demolished and about 5,400 residents relocated to make room. It was designated a New York City landmark on June 24, 2003 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 22, 2021. It remains occupied NYCHA housing rather than a visitor site.

In the 1990s the neighborhood became a center of an experimental and DIY arts scene, sometimes called the Brooklyn Immersionists. Galapagos Art Space, founded in 1995 in a former mayonnaise factory on North 6th Street, helped establish that reputation; rising rents drove it to DUMBO in 2007, and it no longer operates in Williamsburg.

Two of the neighborhood's public spaces sit on the East River. Domino Park occupies six acres of the old refinery site and is open daily from 6am to 11pm, with a playground, a waterfront promenade, sports fields, volleyball and bocce courts, and a dog run. Marsha P. Johnson State Park, near North 7th, 8th, and 9th Streets, opened on May 26, 2007 as East River State Park on the former Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal site; it was renamed in February 2020 and rededicated on August 24, 2020 for the LGBTQ activist Marsha P. Johnson, the first New York state park named for an LGBTQ person. It closes at dusk, and dogs and bicycle riding are prohibited. Inland, McCarren Park straddles the border with Greenpoint.

Smorgasburg, the open-air food-vendor market, runs on Saturdays in Williamsburg and on Sundays in Prospect Park, seasonally from April through October. The market has relocated between nearby lots over its run and no source consulted for this guide pinned down the current site, so confirm the location before setting out.

On the L, Bedford Avenue, Lorimer Street and Graham Avenue are all recorded as being in Williamsburg. Grand Street's own locale is given as Williamsburg and East Williamsburg.

On the G, Metropolitan Avenue shares a complex with the L's Lorimer Street, and Broadway sits at the intersection of Broadway and Union Avenue.

On the BMT Jamaica Line elevated, Marcy Avenue is served by the J at all times, the M at all times except late nights, and the Z in the rush-hour peak direction. Hewes Street is served by the J at all times except the weekday peak direction and by the M at all times except late nights; the Z skips it. Lorimer Street on the Jamaica Line carries the J and M. Flushing Avenue, further south, is served by the J and M with the Z skipping it, and its locale is given as Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick together.

NYC Ferry's East River route calls at two landings named North Williamsburg and South Williamsburg. No source consulted for this guide gave a precise street address or pier location for either, so neither is presented here as sitting in a particular neighborhood.

The Williamsburg Bridge carries a pedestrian and bicycle path to Manhattan's Lower East Side.