The Astoria ferry port was famously located at the foot of Borden Avenue and made its way to 34th Street ferry terminal in Manhattan. It lasted until the Queens Midtown Tunnel opened in 1936. However, there was also a second Astoria based ferry terminal located further north and is relatively forgotten.

The call for a direct ferry link between Yorkville and Astoria has historical precedents. According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, a ferry between 86th Street and Astoria opened as early as 1801. The American Institute of Architects holds that a new ferry landing opened at 92nd Street in 1867, and the ferry left from there to make the trip to Astoria.

William Steinway moved his piano factory to Astoria in 1870 “to escape the machinations of the anarchists and socialists” in Manhattan who were “continually breeding discontent among our workmen and inciting them to strike.” In addition to putting a river between Steinway and labor politics, Astoria also offered the space and lumber necessary to expand the firm’s operations.

Many of the people employed at the Steinway factory were skilled German craftsman living in Manhattan’s Yorkville. These workers commuted to the factory, via the 92nd Street Ferry. That ferry officially came to be known as the Steinway Ferry, but was colloquially known as the “Piano Ferry.”

That ferry service, which originally operated independently, was brought under municipal control by Mayor John Hylan in 1921, because it had been losing money since the opening of the Queensboro Bridge in 1909. (Hylan liked municipal control of mass transit – he was the mind behind the Independent (IND) subway, which was the first municipally-run subway system). The ferry was run municipally until 1936, when Robert Moses decided that the Triborough Bridge made it redundant, and he razed both the 92nd street slip and the ferry house to make room for the Triborough’s FDR Drive approach.

One incident recorded by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on August 18, 1904 told the unfortunate story of Augustus Schliman of Brooklyn. Mr Schliman, a theatrical producer on Broadway, had his private coach buggy parked in from of the ferry port entrance where it was blocking traffic. Patrolman Joseph Kane, of the Hunters Point Precinct order the chauffeur of the buggy to move out of the way.

Schliman ordered his driver to stay put. Patrolman Kane ordered him again to move when Schliman threatened to “break the cop’s nose and do other things, and was finally placed under arrest.” He was placed in a jail cell and ordered to pay $500 in bail which Schliman did so on the spot and in cash. As he was leaving the station Schliman proclaimed that he “had influential friends who would put Kane off the force!”