Columbia Street Waterfront District

Buttermilk Channel is a small tidal strait in Upper New York Bay in New York City, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) long and 0.25 miles (0.40 km) wide, separating Governors Island from Brooklyn. The channel is marked by a number of navigation aids (green cans no. 5 and 7 at the northeast entrance, and green gong no. 1, marking low water off the tip of Governors Island). Tidal currents on the channel are rather strong.

The Atlantic Basin Iron Works was a ship repair and conversion facility that operated in Brooklyn, New York, from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. It converted numerous ships to military use in World War II. Founded before 1910, the yard had its headquarters at 18–20 Summit Street. By 1920, the yard was known for its construction and repair of oil-fired boilers, diesel engines, and refrigeration units.In World War II the company specialized in ship conversion and repair, and like most US shipyards at the time, it was heavily contracted for work by the United States Army, United States Navy and United States Maritime Commission. In 1941–42 the company converted the 9,300-ton passenger and cargo steamship Rio Parana into the British Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Biter.The company's owner, Bernard A. Moran, was strongly anti-union and had defied attempts by the CIO's Marine and Shipbuilding Workers Union to secure a contract with the company since November 1938. His approach became problematic in the war after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's War Labor Board ordered Moran under its broad war powers to sign a union security (maintenance-of-membership) contract. In spite of warnings that he might lose all his government contracts or have his company seized, Moran remained intransigent, and after three months of legal wrangling, the government made good on its threat and seized the company in September 1943, taking direct control of its management. In 1947–48 the shipyard converted the 20,614-gross register ton (GRT) troopship USAT Brazil back into the Moore-McCormack Lines ocean liner SS Brazil. It was the largest peacetime conversion the yard had yet undertaken, and cost $9 million.The western part of the site was used later for the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

The Block House, also known as Building 9 and the Governors Island Post Hospital, is a brick building in the Nolan Park area of Governors Island in New York Harbor, New York City. Its name is due to its early use as a prison. Ulysses S. Grant was briefly stationed there early in his military career. Building 9 was constructed in 1839 in the Greek Revival style and was initially used as the Post Hospital. The roof of the building was originally flat, but was replaced with a hip roof in 1864 because the flat roof would leak. Ten years later, two wings for patient wards were built because the original structure was so poorly ventilated. In 1878–1879, Building 9 was converted to offices for the Military Division of the Atlantic and the Department of the East. The building was used for various Army commands until the 20th century, and by 1947, the structure was converted to four sets of officers' quarters.Building 9 is two-stories with a red-brick facade, raised above a high schist basement. Brick paths lead from Nolan Park to the front entrance. The entrance is surrounded with granite around pedimented wood, which in turn enclosed a paneled wood door. There is a wrought-iron balcony immediately above the front entrance; the back formerly had a similar entrance design, which is now a window. The windows are six-over-six and contain granite lintels and window sills.

The School of Practice (School of Practice for U.S.A. Field Musicians) at Fort Columbus, Governors Island, in New York Harbor was the United States Army's institute for musical training before and during the American Civil War. Much of the historical documentation of the School comes from Ten Years in the Ranks, U.S. Army, a book written by Augustus Meyers after enlisting at age twelve in the 1850s. The first part deals with the School of Practice. The official training guide, adopted by the War Department, was George G. Bruce's The Drummers and Fife Guide, which was used until the end of the Civil War.

The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is a cruise terminal in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The terminal is 180,000 square feet (17,000 m2) and sits on Buttermilk Channel, a tidal strait separating Brooklyn from Governors Island. It is located on land owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) and leased by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). The terminal is one of three terminals for ocean-going cruise ships in the New York metropolitan area. Ships from Carnival Corporation (which owns the Cunard and Princess Cruises) call the terminal their home port. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is located at Red Hook Pier 12, on the south side of the Atlantic Basin at Pioneer and Imlay Streets. Vehicular access is through the main gate near the intersection of Bowne and Imlay Streets. The terminal was converted from a 1954 freight terminal and was earlier the site of the Atlantic Basin Iron Works. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal opened on April 15, 2006, following a $52 million investment by NYCEDC, with the arrival of the RMS Queen Mary 2. On July 15 and 16, 2017, the Brooklyn Street Circuit in the port and supporting roads hosted the Formula E electric car racing series's ninth and tenth round in the 2016–17 Formula E season.

Play:ground NYC is a non-profit adventure playground that has operated on Governors Island in New York City since 2016 and advocates for access to space for free play.

The Admiral's House is a historic building located in the Nolan Park area of Governors Island in New York Harbor. It was originally designed by Martin E. Thompson in the Greek Revival style, and completed in 1843. The Admiral's House is both on the National Register of Historic Places and a New York City designated landmark.

Mary A. Whalen, known as the S.T. Kiddoo from 1938 to 1958, is a historic oil tanker located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. She is the home of the non-profit PortSide NewYork, and the group runs programs aboard her. She was built in 1938 by the John J. Mathis Company, of Camden, New Jersey Hull #124, and measures 172 feet long. She is a rare surviving example of a "bell boat," a ship controlled from the engine room with telegraph signals sent from the bridge. The tanker shipped various fuel products along East Coast and was at center of United States v. Reliable Transfer Co., a pivotal 1975 Supreme Court decision in maritime law after she ran aground in Rockaway Inlet in 1968. She was in active service until 1994.: 3, 11 She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

The Governor's House, also known as Building 2, is a historic house on Governors Island in New York City. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The Governor's House was built c. 1805–1813, during the War of 1812 and was originally known as the Guard House. It is the oldest structure on the island that is not a fortification, but contrary to popular misconception, is not the Colonial Governor's Mansion, which was built in 1702. Building 2 was commanding officers' quarters between 1822 and 1843, then was used the main guard house and post commanding officers' quarters until the 1920s. The building was then used as officers' quarters by 1922. A brick annex was built to the south in 1939.The Governor's House is a two-story Georgian brick structure. The footprint is similar to a Greek Cross, and the gable roof projections, covered with asphalt, intersect at the center of the "cross". The entrance portico contains Ionic columns under an entablature, with a paneled wooden door behind a transom, and is accessed by a concrete-upon-brick stoop. At the entrance portico above the second story is a small lunette window. The windows around the house are six-over-six, double-hung, with brownstone windowsills. The east-side annex has a Colonial Revival doorway and cast stone sills.

Liggett Hall, also known as Building 400 is a former barracks building designed by McKim, Mead & White and built in 1929 near Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York Harbor, in New York City. The Georgian Revival building is three to 4+1⁄2 stories tall and measures 1,023 feet (312 m) long.

The Intercourse is an arts center in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A., founded by contemporary artist Dustin Yellin in 2012. The center includes a large scale exhibition space, a garden and sculpture park, an artist-in-residency program, a class and lecture series. The Intercourse opened to the public in June 2012 with Adam Green's show Cartoon and Complaint.

Pioneer Works is a non-profit cultural center in Red Hook, New York City. The center builds community through the arts and sciences to create an open and inspired world. It encourages radical thinking across disciplines by providing practitioners a space to work, tools to create, and a platform to exchange ideas that are free and open to all. 85% of its funds are spent on free programming.