"By the end of the nineteenth century, the Port of New York was the center of a huge global maritime enterprise - a waterfront colossus astride Manhattan that encompassed hundreds of miles of piers and shore facilities. For much of the first half of the twentieth century, American's seaborne commerce with Europe and Central and South America converged here." "Phillip Lopate, renowed essayist and lifelong taker of New York's pulse, shows us the port through the images of Levick, Sperr, and others as they strove to portray its fluid ensemble of people, ships, business bustle, daily tasks, and rare quiet moments - all against the backdrop of a metropolis that was inexorably evolving beyond them. Many of images, now in the Edwin Levick Collection at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, have never been published. Seen at last in this volume, they bring to life a time when New York was the grandest seaport of them all."--BOOK JACKET.