Duke Riley, The Legacy of Cornelius Dirkson, 2015, laser-cut stainless steel, The Peck Slip School, Manhattan

On this site of Peck Slip, Cornelius Dirkson, a Dutch landowner and innkeeper, operated the first ferry service to run between Manhattan (then New Amsterdam) and Brooklyn, in the 1630s. Over the centuries, the service at Peck Slip evolved from a simple canoe summoned by a shell horn hung from Cornelius's tree, to a bustling freight depot in its mid-1800s heyday, boasting a fleet of steam powered ferry boats. Ferry service was finally overshadowed by the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1833, but the area remained a center for maritime activites dominated by the presence of trade, shipping and industry. Peck Slip and the historic South Street Seaport continue to represent the Manhattan waterfront in the eyes of tourists and native New Yorkers alike.