Great Name For a Bar

According to the ever-nostalgic, often-bickering worthies on the South Brooklyn Network chat room, there used to be a rough and tumble bar in Red Hook called Shaft Alley. It was "infamous" and "sat at the end of Hamilton Avenue roughly where the container port entrance is now. There was a woman bartender in there who could beat the crap atta ya if ya got atta line. She was one tough brawd."

According to another old time, "Shaft Alley must have been right next to Hockin Valley - which I think is where Imlay St. is now." Hockin Valey was apparently "where you would go to hock stuff."

Shaft Alley is an amazingly appropriate name for a bar in Red Hook, given the waterfront industry of the time. Shaft Alley is a ship term. It means "a casing (large enough in which to walk), covering the propeller shaft and extending from engine room to after peak."