When a vessel was launched at the Bayles Shipyard, it slid down rails known as the well-worn ways. The rails in the pathway on either side were once part of those ways and were uncovered in 2007 during construction of Harborfront Park. From 1836 to 1917, more than 140 ships were launched at the Bayles Shipyard in Port Jefferson, and although the yard was neither the first nor the last there, did not have the longest marine railway, and did not build the largest vessel, it built the greatest number of ships, whose careful craftsmanship gave the yard an enviable and far-reaching reputation.