I was walking around in the South Street Seaport neighborhood when I came upon this blood red neon sign of the Brooklyn Bridge on a blood red building on Water Street. I didn’t know anything about the place, but something compelled me to take a few pictures.

When I came home and did some research, I realized that I’d stumbled upon what was basically the longest-running tavern in New York City with a salacious history before Hurricane Sandy damaged the building it was in and led to its closure.

Prior to the closure, the Bridge Cafe was a restaurant and bar that operated in a three-story, wood framed landmarked building erected in 1794 on the corner of Water and Dover Streets. In the 1850s, it was home to the Hole-In-The-Wall-Saloon, a bar that served up booze, depravity, and violence during the reign of the Swamp Angels and other notorious river pirates whose “profession” was to prey on the sailors and ships in the ports. These were no pirates in a Disney movies as they pillaged and raided and murdered under the cover of night with abandon.

The river pirates and seedy characters of the neighborhood met there to drink, conduct “business,” and raise hell. Men were drugged and robbed while women were beaten and raped. The saloon was run by Charley Monell and his famous lady bouncer Gallus Mag. Legend has it that she was six feet tall, wore “unladylike” suspenders, and carried a small sack filled with wet sand she used to knock out anyone she didn’t like. She reportedly also bit off the ears and fingers of patrons who had crossed her and kept these trophies in a large glass jar behind the bar.

In the 1880s, the name of the bar was changed to the Bridge Cafe, which was in use until the building’s damage in 2013. Unfortunately, the building’s landmark designation makes restoration costly and difficult. And, as of 2019, the restaurant still has not reopened.