From The Peopling of NYC

The Docks of Hell's Kitchen

The Docks were vital to the shaping of Hell's Kitchen as an immigrant haven at the end of the 19th century. The docks were a primary stop for immigrant bearing liners and when they arrived in the new land they needed two things immediately: work and shelter. Many of the immigrants starting life in NYC were unskilled laborers, and the docks provided them with jobs - primarily handling cargo - that they needed to earn a living. However transportation was still infantile at the time and poor immigrant workers, unable to afford luxorious modes of transport, needed to walk to work. As a result, the new Americans who found work on the docks settled right by them, turning to neighborhood into a low-income immigrant haven.

Apart from influencing Hell's Kitchen's early immigrant population, the docks changed the face of the neighborhood into the 20th century as well. Numerous cruise ships sailed from the docks, and continue to do so. The French Line ships dock at Hell's Kitchen, which has caused some French restaurants to appear in the area. The docks also host the USS Intrepid, a famous military ship which saw many years of combat and is now a National Historic Landmark. Until 2006, the ship was one of the main attractions of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, though it is now undergoing renovations; it is scheduled to be back in its Hell's Kitchen pier late 2008.

Though the Intrepid has been an important draw to the Hell's Kitchen docks since the 1970s and will likely continue to be so once it returns in 2008, the piers have otherwise scaled down in the scope of their function in recent decades. The piers are relatively small compared to others that have sprung up in the city, particulary Brooklyn, which has caused it to be less practical in use. Even some of the cruise ships that now dock at the piers are expected to be relocated in the near future.

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