Passage III

The Fulton Fish Market

[1]

Walking in Manhattan just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, feeling as if I’ve been transported back in time. The streets at the South Street Seaport are paved with cobblestones. [A] Bobbing up and down in the East River are several, well-preserved, nineteenth-century multimasted schooners. The most potent link to the seaport’s past, however, is the fishy smell coming from the East River.(33)

[2]

From 1822 to 2005, the Fulton Fish Market served as a vital link between the fishing industry and the New York City fish trade and was considered the most important wholesale fish market on the East Coast. [B] The market would open as early as 3:00 a.m. on weekday mornings, this is when fishing-boat crews would bring their fresh catch in to the East River. The distributors, in turn, would sell the fish to buyers whom purchased seafood for local restaurants and stores.

[3]

[1] As I approached, I could hear a clamor of voices as hundreds of fishmongers and buyers haggled over prices. [2] Rows upon rows of carts and wooden bins packed with ice and seafood was crammed into the building. [3] I remember the first time I visited the market. [4] Anyone new to the market would be overwhelmed by the variety of seafood alone with live blue crabs, half-ton swordfish, twenty-pound tuna fillets, fresh octopus. [5] Dodging forklifts, I made my way past bins of ice lined with fish laid side by side, head to tail, head to tail. (40)

[4]

Today, because of my passing by the building that once was the Fulton Fish Market, I listen to the excited voices of tourists who have come to visit the nearby Seaport Museum and shop at the Seaport Mall. [C] The area is still busy,so the market itself moved in 2005 to the Bronx, where it now operates as the New Fulton Fish Market Cooperative. [D] lt’s easy to imagine, likewise, the market still echoing around me here on Fulton Street. All I have to do is close my eyes and take a deep breath.