Dave,
As we've discussed, my dad used to work for the A&P which was also in Bush Terminal. I was 8 or 9 at the time Topps moved all operations to Duryea, so I don't remember their operations.
I do know that, at least for the A&P, not much of anything was moved by water. Lots of stuff was moved by rail, as all those factories and warehouses had spurs right into the buildings. The interstate highway system was still relatively new, so the trucking industry was still growing. The A&P was on the "cutting edge" using a "piggyback" system. This was two truck trailers, loaded onto one flatbed railroad car. They did this to move goods into and out of central locations away from the cities. Then they off-loaded the trailers and drove them to their destinations.
By the mid 1960's A&P was closing their Bush Terminal plant (and factories in Brockport, NY and Terra Haute, IN) and consolidating to one new factory in upstate NY. This enabled them to almost completely abandon rail and utilize trucks for all deliveries. A&P was then able to close almost all their regional warehouses and have their stores order from and deliver from the single manufacturing plant. They could have never done that from Bush Terminal, because transportation logistics were a nightmare.
We lived less than 15 miles from the plant in Brooklyn and, depending upon the time of day, my dad's commute was 60-90 minutes each way.
I would not be surprised to hear Topps had similar problems and explored similar solutions before settling on Duryea as a home.
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