The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a microcosm of New York history. First established by President John Adams in 1801, the grounds birthed the ship that lay the first undersea telegraph cable and the ironclad USS Monitor during the Civil War. The Yard swelled to a peak of 70,000 workers during World War II before Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara closed it in 1966, with all remaining shipbuilders laid off by the next decade. After fits and starts, the area saw a rebirth under Mayor Bloomberg. Today, it’s home to a state-of-the-art movie studio complex, the city's oldest whiskey distillery, and the technology center Newlab.
Newlab is hard to describe. It’s a venture investor across a variety of what it describes as “critical technology” sectors, such as energy and mobility. It’s what a WeWork might look like if Adam Neumann were handy—a massive space for startups complete with carpentry workshops, science labs, and 3D printing rooms. And it’s a consulting business that helps companies like Verizon commercialize moonshot ideas.
