Part of the neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Bush Terminal covered 200 acres (abut 81 hectares) at its peak. It is bounded by Upper New York Bay's Gowanus Bay to the west and north, by 3rd Avenue to the east, and—at its peak—between 27th Street, Brooklyn to the north and 50th Street to the south.

The terminal was the largest of its kind in the world, served as an intermodal hub for railways and cargo ships, and as a model for other integrated cargo facilities. The Bush Terminal Co. handled all the shipping for tenants of the buildings within the facility. It was the first American example of completely integrated manufacturing and warehousing, served by both rail and water transportation, under a unified management, as well as the largest multi-tenant industrial property in the United States.

The Bush Company terminal business became the Bush Terminal Co. in 1902 when Irving T. Bush bought the land from the Standard Oil Co. The warehouses were built circa 1892-1910, the railroad from 1896 to 1915, and the factory lofts between 1905 and 1925^.

Together, Bush Terminal offered economies of scale for its tenants, so that even the smallest concerns had available to them the type of facilities normally only available to large, well-capitalized firms.

As of 1918, Bush Terminal owned 3,100 feet (944 meters) of waterfront in Brooklyn and covered 20 waterfront blocks. Seven piers extended over 1,200 feet into the harbor and were at least 150 feet wide. Each pier was enclosed.Twenty-five steamship lines used these piers, and as of 1910, Bush Terminal handled 10 per cent of all steamships arriving at New York. Eventually, Bush Terminal handled fifty thousand railroad freight cars and had eight piers that docked vessels from 25 steamship lines.

Once freight was offloaded from vessels or ready for shipment, it could be stored within one of 118 warehouses, ranging in height from one to eight stories. Together, they could hold 25,000,000 cubic feet (708,000 cubic meters) of goods.

The company operated the Bush Terminal Railroad Co., which had about twenty miles of track within the terminal. The terminal's railroad greatly reduced shippers' cost to haul freight from their facilities to a railyard.The rail yard could hold about 1,000 freight cars and was six blocks long. The terminal also owned two miles of track through Brooklyn to connect with the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The twelve buildings for manufacturers that had been built by 1918 housed about 300 companies. The buildings, which had 150 freight elevators were mostly u-shaped to facilitate loading at rail sidings. To give an example of Bush Terminal's scale, as of the 1970s, the facility's buildings had 263,740 window panes in their walls and 138 miles of fire sprinklers running within them. The terminal had two power plants for steam and light, plus a bank, restaurants, and even a trolley to provide transportation for workers. In addition to a hall for longshoremen, an administration building was constructed circa 1895 to 1902.