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During a ride over the Brooklyn Bridge last spring, developer Douglas Durst began forging the alliance that will bring a new form of transit to New York City and help out the beleaguered downtown.
Tom Fox, an environmentalist, was riding with Mr. Durst. "I'd love to get my water taxi back in the water," Mr. Fox said with a sigh, pointing to the shoreline below and referring to an idea he'd tried to launch in 1997 and pitched to at least 200 investors since then.
Mr. Durst, a famed midtown developer, asked Mr. Fox for a business plan. Mr. Durst thought that a water taxi could bring commuters from downtown to an office building he was planning on West 57th Street.
The ad-hoc partnership was still percolating on Sept. 11. Then, the devastation following the terrorist attack spurred Mr. Durst to finalize the deal, invest $2 Million in the water taxi and refocus the business on downtown.
"It was clear the idea was vital to recovery, so we put it on the front burner - on all burners," Mr. Durst says.
On July 4, New York Water Taxi will launch two boats, each capable of carrying about as many passengers as a city bus - 54 seated, 21 standing. A third will join the fleet in August. The taxis will make short hops along the Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan waterfronts. Rather than compete with ferries that make longer runs to and from...