To AD:
She is indeed the Oceanic.

To Dave:
That insidious poison Dihydrogen Monoxide is everywhere! I think Monsanto plays a role. They spray it on the streets. They spray it on plants. Why, it's even here in the drink at my elbow!

Nasty stuff.

The liner whose funnels and aft masts are barely visible belongs to the White Star Line (the company flag being clearly visible). I am going to make an educated guess that the ship is the SS/RMS Oceanic of 1899. My rationale is there were a limited number of WS ships that sailed to and from New York which was regarded as the most glamorous port on this side of the Atlantic. In 1910 there were five ships assigned the Liverpool/Southampton to New York route. Those were the Oceanic (a one off ship design that had no sisters) and the so called Big Four consisting of the Celtic, Cedric, Baltic and Adriatic. All five were two stackers. But after looking at photos of the ships (Wikipedia is awesome) I believe that the mast closest to the aft most of the smoke funnels is too far forward to be one of the Big Four. That leaves the Oceanic. I tried to match the masts in the photo here with ones from photos of the Oceanic and they are close though not a perfect match. But the difference is so slight it could be attributable to the angle of the photo or simply ordinary maintenance on the masts.

Input from other Shorpy regulars is welcome.

(Add -- The White Star flag was so far down it appeared to me as though it was at half mast. On reflection, I believe that is likely the case. King Edward VII died in May of 1910 and in those days formal mourning was observed for a full year.)

[You're grasping at straws here. This photo could have been taken in any number of years. Neighboring DPC images are from 1908 and 1911. - Dave]

Sorry. I was going by the 1910 in the caption. But if the date could run as far back as 1908, and I am unable to see anything in the image that would narrow the date range, then yeah, it's not possible to be sure what was going on there.

I believe this was in use by the railroads before they had tunnels into Manhattan. I think the end of the line was in New Jersey and they brought everybody over to New York on ferry boats. By this time, however, the Pennsylvania RR had a tunnel into NYC and Penn Station, but I think I remember reading that the Erie and Lackawanna Railroads used the ferry from NJ to NYC for a number of years after this.

I'm sure some Shorpyite out there will know: What's that liquid being discharged from that wagon on the left?

[Dihydrogen monoxide. - Dave]