TUGBOATS
Pier 11, East River
August 12, 1936 Abbott File 155
This photograph of tugboats was taken at the same time and place as that of the downtown skyport. While seaplanes were New YorkÕs most luxurious and dispensable form of water travel, tugs, which guided large vessels and kept the harbor clean, were its most plebeian and vital.
Two days before, Abbott photographed another tugboat Watuppa. The earlier photograph, taken from the Brooklyn docks with the Manhattan skyline in the distance, proved the more successful composition and was included in the Changing New York book.