The Bush Terminal System of Docks and Warehouses
Much of the green coffee received in New York is discharged and stored here, at one of the most modern waterfront and terminal developments in the world
Airplane View of New York Dock Company's Piers and Warehouses
This is the Fulton Street section of the Brooklyn waterfront, where more than half the coffee received in New York is unloaded. The storage warehouses are to be seen back of the piers
RECEIVING PIERS FOR COFFEE AT NEW YORK
Handling Coffee at New York
The handling of the cargoes of coffee when they arrive at their destination is a source of wonder to the layman. There is probably no better place to study the handling of coffee than in New York City—the world's largest coffee center. Millions of bags of coffee pass into consumption every year through its docks, and scarcely a day goes by when there are not one or more ships discharging coffee upon the docks lining the Brooklyn shore, the center of the coffee-warehouse district for New York. In 1921, the New York Dock Company alone had 159 bonded warehouses with a storage capacity of some 65,000,000 cubic feet; and 34 piers, the longest measuring 1,193 feet and containing more than 175,000 square feet. These piers have a total deck space of sixty-one and a half acres. The wharfage distance is more than nine and a third miles. More than twenty steamship lines berth their vessels there regularly, and many of them are coffee ships. The warehouses have direct connections with all the principal railway trunk lines running into the New York district; and the whole property of the company stretches along the waterfront opposite lower Manhattan for about two and one-half miles.
Although coffee is admitted to the United States free of duty, it is subject to practically the same formalities as dutiable goods. Before the cargo can be "broken out," a government permit to "land and deliver" must be placed in the hands of the customs inspector on the dock. This done, the ship's samples, which consist of the samples sent by the exporter to the importer, are taken to the United States appraiser's office for inspection, and are then delivered to the importer's representative. Meanwhile the shipping documents covering the cargo, including bills of lading and consular invoices, have been sent to the post office for delivery to banks and bankers' agents, who check and deliver them to the customs officers for entry. The government requires that this entry shall be made within forty-eight hours of the vessel's arrival, else the cargo will be stored in a United States bonded warehouse under what is known as "general order" which makes the consignee liable for storage and cartage charges.