Municipal ferry service initially was established during the administration of Mayor George B. McClellan (in office from 1904-1909) but it really grew during the Hylan Administration (1918-1925) as new ferry routes were established and ferryboats were designed and purchased by the City.  

Even though municipal ferry service in the City underwent a period of growth from 1918 to 1925, it’s decline began shortly after reaching its pinnacle in the mid-1920s. There were two contributing factors—the Stock Market Crash of 1929 that led to the Great Depression; and the construction of tunnels, bridges, and roads for the almighty automobile. The near decade-long economic depression that began in 1929 meant that the City had less revenue and therefore less money to spend. Funding for the municipal ferry system in New York City was one of the numerous municipal services that were cut. That said, during this same economic depression, public money was used for the construction of automobile infrastructure. Not coincidentally, this infrastructure for automobiles crossed over or tunneled under New York City-area waterways replicating many of the ferry routes.

This pattern of replacing mass transit ferry routes with bridges and tunnels primarily designed for single, privately-owned car commuting would continue into the 1960s, thus contributing to the demise of the municipal ferry system and the rise of the gridlocked highways we are left with today. For example, the City’s Astoria Ferry that ran between East 92nd Street (Manhattan) and Astoria (Queens) operated from 1920-1936 when it was discontinued after the opening of the Triborough Bridge in 1936; the City discontinued the Clason Point (Bronx) to College Point (Queens) route that operated from 1921-1939 after the construction of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in 1939; and the municipally-operated Rockaway Ferry that ran from Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways was in operation from 1925-1937 when it was discontinued following the opening of the Marine Park Bridge.