The pier on the far right was Pier No. 1 of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Line. It was constructed soon after a horrific June 30, 1900 fire burned all three of the NDL piers to the water line, gutting three of its transatlantic steamers, and killing over 300 people. Not surprisingly, the replacement piers were designed to be as fireproof as possible. (Replacement piers in the Nov. 27, 1900 NY Times.)

South of the three NDL piers were the Hamburg America piers - two of which (Nos. 5 and 6) were destroyed in a 1921 fire.

The ferry Binghamton tied up at the former Holland America pier circa 1968. Holland America left Hoboken for Pier 40 on Manhattan's West Side in 1963.

I can see the Cunard Dock across the river (not hard, there's a great big sign). On this side I can only guess based on the house flags that the ships are flying, but it there's another Holland-America ship on the other side of the dock (confirmed by her funnel markings). On the far left of the photo it looks as if there's an American Line ship. On the right of the Rotterdam - on the other side of the next dock - is what appears to be a North German Lloyd ship. It would be interesting to know what the layout of company docks at Hoboken was in those days.

On the other side of the pier from the Rotterdam is another Holland-America liner, although much smaller. The Rotterdam was built in 1908 and scrapped in 1940.

Further to the left and behind the ferry is a Cunard liner tied up to Cunard's Manhattan pier.

One of Holland-America's present day flagships (along with the Amsterdam) is a newer version of Rotterdam. You can see an image of her on Holland-America's website.

In 1903 Great-Grandpa got into a little trouble in Genoa. Got on a ship to Hoboken as crew, jumped ship, "just walked away" as the story goes. In 1904 he sends for G-Grandma & toddler Grandma, there is a record of the family entering (again at Hoboken). G-Grandpa died in 1955, still WOP (without papers). Now have an idea of what it must have looked like to them, thanks.

The lettering on the Lehigh Valley appears to have been faded by digital ice or some other automatic clean up program. I had to quit using it because it would randomly remove details when I did slide scans. I found it better to just do the clean up on the original and scan as is.

[You're mistaken about the lettering on the boxcar -- this is how it really looked. Such software is not used on these images. - Dave]

I do believe this structure was once part of another building, possibly salvaged from something that was demolished.

It looks like the back (or is it now the front?) is made of Corrugated Tin while the rest is made of Wood.

Possibly it's being used as temporary housing for some of the Dock workers or the Railroad people?