Red Hook Grain Terminal, Concrete grain elevator in Red Hook, Brooklyn, United States
The Red Hook Grain Terminal is a large concrete grain storage structure on the waterfront of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York. It consists of sixty cylindrical silos arranged side by side in a single long row facing the water.
The terminal opened in 1922 as part of the port network that moved goods through New York Harbor, and it handled grain shipments for several decades. It closed in 1965 and has stood empty ever since.
The terminal has been used as a backdrop for music videos by artists such as David Bowie and Lorde, who were drawn to its raw concrete form. Visitors who know these videos often recognize the long row of silos immediately from the waterfront.
The site is not open to the public and is under port authority ownership, so access is not possible from the inside. The best view of the silos is from the waterfront path in Red Hook or from nearby green spaces along the canal.
Despite sitting empty for over 60 years, the concrete structure has held up without major restoration work, which says a lot about how it was built in 1922. The silos are large enough to be spotted from several points across the borough, not just from the waterfront.
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