A floating history museum docked in Hoboken is giving residents a chance to see what the city's waterfront used to look like.

The Waterfront Museum is anchored in Hoboken through June 5, miles down the Hudson from its usual home in Brooklyn. The museum is an old barge that has been converted into a maritime museum and showboat.

The barge offers both education and entertainment.

During daytime hours, the little ones can get a lesson on how goods were transported between New York and New Jersey before bridges and tunnels. The museum also extols the virtues of waterfront preservation.

On nights and weekends, the barge comes alive with concerts, films and even circus acts and gives a taste of an authentic showboat soiree.

"It's the only surviving example of its kind," says owner and operator David Sharps.