American
Yacht Club
Spring Cruise, 2013
Siobhan Reilly, Fleet Captain
Prepared by Jim Reilly, Matt Fahey, and Doug Roth
Contents
SAFETY NOTES ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Execution Rocks..................................................................................................................................... 9
The Pelham Islands.............................................................................................................................. 10
Huckleberry Island ..........................................................................................................................................10
Little Pea Island ...............................................................................................................................................10
Pea Island ........................................................................................................................................................10
Davids’ Island ..................................................................................................................................................10
Hart Island.......................................................................................................................................................11
City Island ............................................................................................................................................ 12
Fort Totten .......................................................................................................................................... 13
Throgs Neck Bridge ............................................................................................................................. 14
Whitestone Bridge .............................................................................................................................. 15
Hunts Point.......................................................................................................................................... 17
LaGuardia Airport ................................................................................................................................ 18
Riker’s Island ....................................................................................................................................... 20
The Brother Islands ............................................................................................................................. 21
North Brother Island .......................................................................................................................................21
South Brother Island .......................................................................................................................................21
Port Morris .......................................................................................................................................... 22
Randall’s Island/Wards Island ............................................................................................................. 23
Randall’s Island ...............................................................................................................................................23
Wards Island ...................................................................................................................................................23
Hell Gate Bridge .................................................................................................................................. 26
Triborough Bridge ............................................................................................................................... 28
Hell Gate.............................................................................................................................................. 30
Mill Rock .............................................................................................................................................. 31
Carl Shurz Park/Horn’s Hook ............................................................................................................... 32
Roosevelt Island .................................................................................................................................. 33
New York Presbyterian Hospital ......................................................................................................... 35
Hospital for Special Surgery ................................................................................................................ 36
59th Street/Queensboro Bridge ........................................................................................................... 37
United Nations .................................................................................................................................... 38
Belmont Island (U Thant) .................................................................................................................... 40
Queens Midtown Tunnel .................................................................................................................... 41
Newtown Creek................................................................................................................................... 43
East River Ferry and LI Sights .............................................................................................................. 44
Long Island City ...............................................................................................................................................44
Greenpoint ......................................................................................................................................................44
North Williamsburg.........................................................................................................................................45
South Williamsburg/Schaefer Landing ...........................................................................................................45
DUMBO ...........................................................................................................................................................46
East 34th Street Heliport..................................................................................................................... 47
Kips Bay ............................................................................................................................................... 48
Bellevue Hospital................................................................................................................................. 49
East River Generating Station ............................................................................................................. 50
Williamsburg Bridge ............................................................................................................................ 52
Wallabout Bay/Brooklyn Navy Yard .................................................................................................... 53
Wallabout Bay.................................................................................................................................................53
Brooklyn Navy Yard .........................................................................................................................................54
Corlears Hook Park .............................................................................................................................. 56
Manhattan Bridge ............................................................................................................................... 57
The Brooklyn Bridge ............................................................................................................................ 58
South Street Seaport ........................................................................................................................... 60
Staten Island Ferry Terminal ............................................................................................................... 64
The Battery .......................................................................................................................................... 66
Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ..................................................................................................................... 68
Governors Island ................................................................................................................................. 69
Buttermilk Channel ............................................................................................................................. 70
Ellis Island/ Liberty Island .................................................................................................................... 71
Ellis Island .......................................................................................................................................................71
Liberty Island...................................................................................................................................................72
Liberty Landing Marina ....................................................................................................................... 73
3
SAFETY NOTES
1. As with any cruise, every captain is responsible for prudently controlling his own vessel, and
understanding the maritime hazards that may be confronted on the voyage. Captains should
ensure that each passenger has a PDF, knows where it is, and knows how to wear it.
2. We will be travelling through an area that has a number of restrictions enforced by the U.S.
Coast Guard (USCG) that are not a concern in our usual boating area. Violators of these
restrictions are subject to a penalty of up to $50,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than
5 years (not to mention banishment from the club!) Specifically, no vessel or person in New
York metro waters:
o is authorized within 150 yards of Liberty Island, Ellis Island, or the United Nations;
o is allowed within 25 yards of all bridge piers or abutments, overhead power cables, and
tunnel ventilators;
o is allowed within 100 years of all anchored or moored US Coast Guard vessels;
o is allowed within 100 yards of LaGuardia International Airport;
o is allowed within a 100 yard radius of any passenger ship, or vessel or barge carrying
petroleum/chemical products in bulk; and
o is allowed within 100 yards around all U.S. Navy vessels (any vessel owned, operated,
chartered, or leased by the U.S. Navy and any vessel under the operational control of
the U.S. Navy or a Unified Commander)
o When travelling in navigable waters within 500 yards of a US Navy vessel, all vessels are
to proceed at a “no wake” speed.
3. Captains operating their vessel in a safe and prudent manner should not anticipate any
interference from any law enforcement officers, but should be aware that:
o For obvious regions, the USCG will take a keen interest in any boats that appear to be
too interested in particular areas (bridges, UN, ferry terminals, etc.)
o The USCG is empowered to board any vessel at any time for inspection.
o All USCG officers and petty officers are Federal law enforcement officers and they may
board any United States vessel anywhere. The Coast Guard boarding team is armed.
o Although most mariners that are boarded are engaged in legitimate recreational or
commercial pursuits, even a seemingly innocent pleasure boat boarding sometimes
turns into a dangerous confrontation by ignorance on the part of the boater.
o The USCG follows a standard procedure before boarding. Coast Guard personnel will
always properly identify themselves, will always be in uniform, coveralls, or survival suit
displaying Coast Guard insignia, and will always operate from a marked USCG or Navy
vessel flying the Coast Guard Ensign. Once aboard the vessel, the boarding party will
check for compliance with federal laws. If, during the inspection, a reasonable suspicion
develops that the vessel has been engaged in criminal activity, the boarding officer may
investigate further.
4. We will be passing through a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) area in the East River. While no
communication requirements exist, the prudent mariner would be well advised to maintain a
listening watch on VHF channels 13 and 16 when in the vicinity of commercial traffic. Channel
13 is “bridge-to-bridge” (ship-to-ship), and channel 16 is, of course for emergency use.
Channels 11 (sailing plan and initial calls throughout the VTS New York Area), 12 (Arthur Kill,
East River, Raritan Bay and Anchorage Administration), and 14 (Lower Bay, Upper Bay,
4
Newark Bay, Sandy Hook Channel and Raritan Bay) are also used by commercial mariners to
communicate their intentions to the Portmaster’s office, located in Staten Island.
5. The East River and Upper New York Bay have a number of barges, tugs, tankers, pilots, ferries,
passenger boats, fireboats, police boats, passenger ships, Coast Guard vessels, and cargo
vessels at any one time. Some of these vessels might be high speed craft (up to 35 knots),
some may be anchored, and some may be idling. Keep a sharp lookout at all times, both fore
and aft, to avoid surprises. Set a course and stick to it - do not act in erratic fashion, to avoid
confusing other captains.
6. Note that for much of the East River, ferries stick to the Queens/Brooklyn side. The river
crossing points occur at 34th Street and just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. Further down, a
number of ferries to New Jersey depart from the Wall St. Terminal, curve around Battery Park,
and head up the Hudson to Hoboken and Weehawken.
7. We will have a strong favorable current heading down the East River, and do not anticipate
much traffic heading upriver at that time. Once past Roosevelt Island, the current will slow
considerably as we enter a wider area, but the river traffic will pick up, particularly with
respect to ferries. As we pass under the Williamsburg Bridge, the current will strengthen again
slightly (again, in our favor), until we’re past the Seaport. At that point, the Staten Island Ferry
Terminal will be approaching on our starboard side, but the Upper Bay will provide plenty of
room to maneuver.
8. While heading downriver, keep a sharp lookout for debris floating in the water (branches,
logs, oil drums, etc). we are traveling through a waterway that abuts industrial work zones
and is also heavily frequented by commercial traffic. Additionally, the strong back-and-forth
currents often trap debris in the East River.
5
Introduction
Welcome to the AYC Spring Cruise! For the first time in memory, we will be heading west to explore
New York City’s waterways. This passage is one of the most storied and historical waterways in the
United States (if not the world), with initial “discovery” dating back to 1524, just a generation after
Columbus first discovered the New World. The early explorers of this region had a profound influence on
the settlement of the New World. As they related the wonders of their discoveries to others, they created a
growing tide of adventurers and immigrants travelling to the Americas to eventually tame the wilds, build
communities, states, and nations, and a great influence for the rest of the world. It is our hope that our
small foray “downriver” will serve in similar fashion to spur other AYC boaters to sail for new ports and
new adventures!
Geologically speaking, the entire region of New York goes back more than a billion years, with
significant tectonic events and resulting in a complex interfolded mix of granite gneiss, marble and schist.
Roughly a half a billion years ago, continental land masses started moving towards each other, and the
Manhattan prong was formed. Later, the Ice Age also had a profound impact on the region. At the height
of the Ice Age, the New York metro region marked the boundary of the Wisconsin Glacier, Long Island
Sound was a lake, and, due to lower sea levels (about 300 feet lower), the ocean-front was literally a
hundred miles away. As the glacier melted and retreated northward, the ocean’s rise covered the
continental shelf, converted Long Island lake into a sound, took what had been a narrow valley and
turned it into the East “River” (really a tidal strait), and left behind the fjord we now call the Hudson
River.
The history of European exploration of these waters is extremely rich and interesting. It begins with
the first known European explorer in this area, Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine pirate and
navigator. Verrazano was a young boy when Columbus electrified Europe with the news of new lands to
the East. Within a few years, Verrazano had grown into a young adventurous man who had journeyed to
Syria and Egypt (no small feat in those days), had befriended a number of French naval commanders,
and established a reputation as an intrepid sailor and fearless navigator.
At the same time, the heads of European states, looking to get richer from these new lands, were
dispatching vessels to explore the new continent and conquer the natives. Thanks to Columbus, Vespucci
and Ferdinand Magellan – the astronauts of their day - Spain and Portugal were quick off the mark in
gaining footholds in the New World. Reports of the riches coming from the new lands led King Francis I
of France to fear that his empire might soon be at a strategic disadvantage, particularly if one of the
explorers found a shortcut to Asia. He began looking for a man to undertake an expedition on behalf of
France. After meeting Verrazano, the King hired the young Florentine pirate and navigator to explore
the new continent for the glory of France.
After making landfall near Cape Fear in North Carolina, Verrazano bumped his way up the coast
looking for a navigable river leading to the East. He first sailed into New York’s harbor and the lower
reaches of the Hudson River sometime in the Spring of 1524. Quickly realizing the body of water wasn’t a
shortcut to Cathay, he declined to fully explore the river (leaving the honor to the Englishman Henry
Hudson, 85 years later, working for the Dutch), and ducked back out to open sea. After discovering
Narragansett Bay and Martha’s Vineyard, he returned to Europe to report back to the King.
Verrazano could have been one of the great explorers, had he taken more courses in self-promotion
and been more selective in which ports he visited. The last, fatal port selection he made was to anchor off
the Island of Guadeloupe, perhaps to get some of the locally grown pineapples that had been discovered
by Columbus some thirty years before. Unfortunately, Verrazano neglected to read his Frodor’s guide or
equivalent carefully that day. Had he done so, he would have realized that natives of the island enjoyed
meeting strangers, then killing, cooking and eating them. Certainly an ignoble end to one of Europe’s
first visitor to these waters!
6
While Verrazano is now a household name (at least in New York , thanks to the bridge), he came very
close to being the “forgotten explorer”. In fact, the name for the Verrazano Narrows Bridge was twice
rejected by master builder Robert Moses in the late 1950’s, who obviously didn’t major in European
History with a minor in Renaissance Exploration – he had no clue as to who Verrazano was, despite
massive campaigning by New York’s Italian-American community. After Governor Rockefeller seemingly
settled the matter in 1960 by signing a law declaring the bridge to be named for the explorer, the
assassination of JFK shortly before the bridge’s completion prompted the local Irish-Americans to
petition it be named for the slain President. Before civil war could break out between these two ethnic
factions, the president of the Italian Historical Society brokered a deal with then- Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy, who agreed that the bridge would stay named for the Italian explorer, and Idlewild
Airport would be renamed JFK Airport, in honor of his brother.
Verrazano’s discovery of a great bay was not followed up on for eighty-five years – and even then, it
was somewhat accidental. In 1607 and 1608, Henry Hudson made his first two voyages of discovery –
not to the New World, but to attempt a Northeast passage to Asia by sailing through the Arctic Sea while
on the payroll of the Muscovy Company. Muscovy, an early English version of a venture capitalist firm,
had a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I to own a monopoly on whaling. Looking to diversify their
trading portfolio, the firm directed their hired mariner to sail northward and eastward through the Arctic
Ocean on the theory that the summer sun would melt the icecaps and make passageway possible (their
board of directors must have included one of Al Gore’s ancestors).
After two failed attempts, Hudson’s reputation as an intrepid mariner willing to take risks was so
elevated that another company, the optimistically named Dutch East Indies Company, hired him away
from Muscovy, despite his failures to complete the trip. Like many a business, the new employer decided
to emulate the strategy of their competitor – the Dutch East Indies management instructed Hudson to sail
northward and eastward through the Arctic Ocean, relying on the “third time’s a charm” tactic. History
is not sure if Hudson got cold feet, or simply suspected that the concept of Global Warming was a bit
premature. In any case, once on the open water, he decided to take the initiative and sail west to look for
the rumored Northwest passage - John Smith of Jamestown had recently described Indian tales of a great
inland sea (historians believe the natives were most likely referring to the Great Lakes).
Hudson’s decision to disobey orders would have a profound influence on world history. Much like
Columbus more than a century previously, he set out to prove a theory on someone else’s dime. Like
most mariners, Hudson believed that a large river traversed the North American continent, despite the
lack of any empirical evidence. In his fruitless search for that mythical river, he had hoped the Potomac
would be “the one” to take him to the Pacific, but there must have been too much red tape even then to
get past Washington (and the British at Jamestown were another distraction). Instead, he headed north,
and stumbled across some prime real estate - Delaware Bay and the Delaware River (which he called the
South River), the Hudson River (which he navigated all the way up to Albany, modestly calling it the
North River), and Long Island.
He returned to Europe with news of his discoveries, and made one final voyage, this time as a joint
employee of the Virginia Company and the British East Indies Company (another early venture
capitalist). On this last trip, he discovered Hudson Bay, but instead of sailing westward to “confirm” that
he had at last found the Northwest Passage, he spent too much time exploring the eastern shores of
Hudson Bay. Like Verrazano, Hudson met an ignoble end, but this time, at the hands of his own crew.
The ship became trapped in ice in November, and the crew moved ashore for the winter. Once the ice
cleared, he informed the crew that they would continue to sail westward – but the crew was more
interested in heading home for some much-needed R&R, so they stuck Hudson, his son, and a few of his
close friends in a small boat with marginal provisions and cast them adrift in Hudson Bay – never to be
seen again.
7
While Hudson never did find the fabled river, he contributed greatly to the European understanding of
North America’s geography. His written account prompted the Dutch to colonize the New York area
(calling it New Amsterdam). Another explorer, Adrien Block (more on him later), also explored the area
and came back with glowing reports. One of the first ventures to attempt colonization in the New
Amsterdam area came from some Church of England separatists who had recently re-settled in the
Netherlands. These Pilgrims wanted to get away from the (relatively) hedonistic Dutch, and were
thankfully were blown off course to Cape Cod. A good thing, too - let’s face it, New York City just
wouldn’t have the same earthy appeal if it had been started by Puritans!
Like these explorers of centuries past, many of us will be making this trip for the first time on water.
Unlike the first-timers, we have enormous advantages of knowledge, fair weather (we hope!),
navigational aids, and (most importantly) motors. As we make our way down through the East River and
over to Liberty State Park, we’ll be passing by a number of sites, structures and landmarks that we’ve
seen before, but perhaps never knew much about. While you’re enjoying cruising in company with other
AYC boats, read on to learn something about what’s on the horizon, and what’s slipping past the
transom…
8
Execution Rocks
For many, Execution Rocks marks the western-most boundary when venturing out into the
Sound. The lighthouse sits on the border between New Rochelle and Sands Point, New York,
standing 55 feet tall, with a white light flashing every 10 seconds. The attached stone keeper's
house was inhabited up until 1979, when the light was automated.
Rumor has it that the site got its name before the American Revolutionary War when British
colonial authorities executed people by chaining them to the rocks at low tide, allowing the rising
water to drown them. Some say the skeletons were left to torture the minds of the newly
condemned as they faced certain death. The ghosts of the condemned would later have their
revenge. A shipload of British soldiers, sent to pursue Washington on his retreat from Manhattan to
White Plains, foundered at the reef. No redcoats survived.
The truth is somewhat less dramatic, but still fatal - the name was chosen to reflect the
historically dangerous shipping area created
by the rocks' exposure during low tides.
The light went into service in 1850. The
original lighting apparatus consisted of 13
lamps with red shades set in reflectors. The
red coloring distinguished the light from the
white light of Sands Point. In 1856, the light
was refitted with a new-fangled Fresnel lens.
It is one of several lighthouses to contain a
Daboll trumpet, an engine-driven foghorn
invented in 1869 and capable of projecting
sound warnings up to ten miles.
The keepers’ dwelling was erected in
1867. The two-and-a-half story dwelling was
Execution Rocks Lighthouse with fog signal building
constructed of granite blocks and connects
to the tower. Originally painted white, the
Execution Rocks Lighthouse received its distinctive brown band in 1895. A concrete oil house was
added sometime between 1910 and 1920.
The lighthouse survived two fires, in 1918 and in 1921. It was still manned up until December,
1979, when it was refitted with a white flashing modern optic. In May of 2007, the Execution Rocks
Lighthouse was made redundant by the Coast Guard and offered to eligible entities through the
National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Historically Significant Structures was the
only organization to submit an application, and in January of 2009, the group, led by Craig
Morrison, received the deed for the lighthouse from the federal government.
They offered the first public tour of Execution Rocks in early July of 2009 by its new owners.
Participants in the tour were required to wear breathing masks to protect against peeling lead paint
and mold in the keepers' quarters. The new owners have raised enough money from tours and
grants to have the lighthouse in good enough condition to receive overnight visitors in 2013.
Accommodations are quite rustic, consisting of air mattresses, a portable toilet, and a propane grill
for cooking food. Not quite Picnic Point, but close!
Travelling past Execution Rocks on our port side, we’ll sail by the Pelham Islands – Huckleberry, Pea,
Little Pea, Hart and David’s Islands on the starboard side. Bearing will be due South, keeping all the
Pelham islands to your starboard. Head directly towards Kings Point, which marks the entrance to
Manhasset Bay on the port side and the entrance to the East River on the starboard side.
9
The Pelham Islands
Huckleberry Island
Legend has it that this island holds the buried treasure of the pirate Captain William Kidd. It
was also the home stomping grounds of the legendary “Huckleberry Indians” since 1893, who
invaded the island every July. The Indians were, in fact, a club within the New York Athletic Club –
once described by a NYAC official as “basically a bunch of nature fanatics who liked to get drunk
and run around nude”. The annual Bacchanalian feast of clams, wine, and beer petered out over
the years, and the now-civilized “Indians” host a black tie dinner party at the NYACs midtown
location. The island has been converted to a nesting area used by thousands of egrets, cormorants,
gulls, night herons, and glossy ibises. Anyone looking to re-institute the old-style summer festivities
with traditional “costumes” would be well advised that birds have very sharp beaks and can be very
territorial (remember Hitchcock’s classic film “The Birds”). Also, shortly after embarking on the
island, you’ll soon be covered head to foot in guano.
Little Pea Island
Also known as Columbia Island, this little spit of land was once owned by the Huguenot Yacht
Club, but the club sold the property to CBS, who constructed a radio tower on the site in 1940.
$500,000 was spent to construct the transmitter, broadcast tower, a copper-clad room and two
submarine cables connected to two separate power plants to prevent interruption of service (in
addition to an emergency generator). In 1963, the island was purchased by a show-business couple
(Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healey) who converted it to their home. They used the surplus
equipment to broadcast a regular breakfast conversation, but eventually ran out of things to talk
about and donated the island to the College of New Rochelle three years later. In 2005, the island
was sold to the mysterious Columbia Island LLC, which started upgrading the island for a private
residence, but work stopped shortly after it began.
Pea Island
The slightly larger island next to Little Pea Island, is owned by Huguenot Yacht Club, but hasn’t
been used since a storm in 1992 destroyed the few structures that had been constructed for the
club’s use in the 30’s.
Davids’ Island
Davids' Island is 78 acres in size. While currently uninhabited, in the past it was the site of
pastoral farms, summertime excursion points for city dwellers, a planned ink factory (never built), a
Civil War military hospital and Confederate POW camp, a coastal artillery defense post (Fort
Slocum), and eventually an Army recruiting and training center (the famous “Sound off, one, two”
military cadence was invented here in 1944, by Private Willie Duckworth, chanting to build up the
spirits of his company on a forced march).
From 1946 to 1949, Fort Slocum was the headquarters base of the First Air Force, and from
1955 to 1960, a control center for the Nike Ajax air defense batteries located on nearby Hart Island.
The Fort was de-activated in 1965, and the facilities started to deteriorate.
The City of New Rochelle used it as a summer youth camp for a few years before selling it to
Consolidated Edison in 1968, who considered using it as a possible location for a nuclear power
plant for a few years before selling it back to New Rochelle in 1976 for a single dollar. Various plans
to develop the isle have included a large new marina, luxury condominiums, and a casino, but
political pressures killed off each idea over the years. One big stumbling block for any development
was the removal of the ruins of the fort; in the summer of 2008, the city of New Rochelle
demolished all 90 remaining structures on the island, including the iconic water tower.
10
Current plans are to preserve the island as public parkland under the Westchester County
Parks system.
Hart Island
Hart Island is approximately a mile long and one quarter of a mile wide, and at various times
during its history, it has housed a workhouse, a hospital, prisons, a Civil War internment camp, a
reformatory and a missile base. Currently it serves as the city's potter's field and is run by the New
York City Department of Correction.
Hart Island was a prisoner-of-war camp for four months in 1865. People were quarantined
there during the 1870 yellow fever epidemic and at various times Hart Island has been home to a
women's lunatic asylum; a tubercularium; a delinquent boys home; and during the Cold War, siloed
Nike missiles.
There are still visible remains of old wooden houses and institutional masonry structures of
the delinquent boys home that have fallen into disrepair. These are now being torn down to
provide new ground for burials. Also remaining is a building constructed in 1885 as a women's
insane asylum, the Pavilion, as well as Phoenix House, a drug rehabilitation facility that closed in
1976.
Hart Island is now the location of the largest tax-funded potter's field cemetery in the world.
Burials on Hart Island began during the American Civil War, and have continued to the present day.
More than 850,000 dead are buried here. One third of them are infants and stillborn babies. As you
pass by, say a prayer for these poor forgotten souls.
The island also has defunct Nike Ajax missile silos, dating from the mid-1950’s. Nike Ajax
missiles were a very early form of the “Star Wars” defense, intended to intercept incoming ICBMs
from Mother Russia – the equivalent of shooting exploding arrows at incoming cannonballs.
Thankfully, they were never needed, and the last components of the missile system were closed in
1974.
11
City Island
Tucked behind Hart Island is City Island, the first real estate we pass by that is contained within
the City of New York. The island is home to about 4,000 residents. It is part of the Pelham Islands,
a group of islands originally belonging to Thomas Pell, brother of John Pell, a noted English
mathematician who worked on a variety of topics in the area of pedagogy, encyclopedism and
pansophy, combinatorics and the legacy of Trithemius (note to all readers: if anyone can shed light
on these fields, please let me know!).
Thomas Pell was legally challenged by the Dutch courts who considered the English as
trespassers on their territory. The dispute was resolved by Pell in 1664 when the British Navy,
supported by a militia invasion force consisting largely of City Island colonists and led by Pell
himself, entered New Amsterdam and forced Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor of New
Netherland, to surrender the claim (note to self: try this methodology to reduce property taxes).
Thomas Pell died in 1669. Having no children, he left his estate to a nephew, John Pell, son of
his mathematician brother. The nephew traveled from England to New York and took up residence
at Pelham Manor, becoming the first Lord of the Manor. His descendants have continued to be
prominent in the American polity, including Ambassador and U.S. Representative Herbert Pell and
U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, chief sponsor of the Pell Grant.
Just before the American Revolution, entrepreneur Benjamin Palmer received approval from
the British Crown to develop the island for shipbuilding and maritime commerce. The revolution
sunk his plans, and the island remained covered in local farms until the 1820s, when oystermen,
Hell Gate pilots, shipbuilders and sailmakers began to make the island their home. From then on, it
became a local maritime center of excellence.
Past AYC Commodore Herb Hild is intimately familiar with this landmark isle, having spent his
childhood and his career selling sails on the island. Since the ‘80’s, a lot of the marine-based
businesses have been replaced with condos and co-ops… leading the old-time “clam-diggers” to
christen the non-native new residents as “mussel-suckers”.
Surprisingly, bright green parrots (monk parakeets), originally imported from South America as
pets, have adapted to the climate and breed in the wild on City Island and nearby Pelham Bay Park.
The island has the look and feel of a small New
England fishing village, with no spot more than a few
minutes' walking distance to the water. Most
businesses are clustered along the central City Island
Avenue. There are two small supermarkets, a gas
station, a pharmacy, a bank, a hardware store, and a
variety of other small shops. The island is most
famous for its numerous seafood restaurants and
antique stores, which line both sides of the avenue.
View of City Island from Orchard Beach. Note
Larchmont Yacht Club pleasure craft in foreground.
As we approach King’s Point, we’ll head to starboard a bit, with the Throgs Neck Bridge off our starboard
bow. Fort Totten Park lies dead ahead, with Little Bay to the right of it and Little Neck Bay to the left. As
we approach Fort Totten, the SUNY Maritime College will be on our starboard side, behind the curved
portion of the bridge. Once we’re past the SUNY Maritime College point, we’ll turn hard to starboard to
make our approach underneath the first bridge and between the two towers, as we enter the East River.
12
Fort Totten
Fort Totten is at the head of Little Neck Bay, on the North Shore of Long Island and the
beginning of the East River. Now owned by the City of New York, it was built by the US Army, with
construction beginning in 1862. The Fort Totten Officers' Club, known as "the Castle," is now home
to the Bayside Historical Society. The Officer's Club is a Designated Landmark. The club building
was believed to have been designed by Robert E. Lee in his pre-Civil War capacity as a military
engineer. The building was built in the neo-Gothic style popular at the time and was not created
specifically for Fort Totten but rather was a generic design approved by the Army for use at military
installations. Identical structures were built at other Army forts and the Castle design was adopted
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as their insignia.
The fort is close to the neighborhoods of Bay Terrace, Bayside, Beechhurst and Whitestone,
and it is close to the northeast corner of Queens County, New York. The original purpose was to
protect the East River approach to New York Harbor, along with Fort Schuyler, which faces it from
Throgs Neck on the opposite side of the river entrance. The fort was named in 1898 after Joseph
Gilbert Totten.
In 1954, the fort became a Project Nike air defense site. Although no missiles were located at
Fort Totten, it was the regional headquarters for the New York area; administrative offices and
personnel housing was located at the fort. Fort Totten was also the headquarters for the 66th AntiAircraft Missile Battalion, Battery D, whose missiles were located at nearby Fort Slocum on Hart
Island, previously discussed. Headquarters of the 41st AAA Gun Battalion was also stationed here.
90MM cannon Batteries of the 41st were located throughout Long Island. During the mid-1950s the
90 MM guns were replaced with Nike missiles. The use of Fort Totten as a missile command post
was discontinued in 1974.
Much of the fort has become a public park and is open for tours by the New York City
Department of Parks & Recreation. The Fort Totten Visitor's Center has been refurbished and
houses a museum with exhibits about the history of Fort Totten. Parts of the park are used by the
New York Police Department and the New York Fire Department as a training center. Most
buildings are dilapidated and unused. Fort Totten is also a sports complex, with an outdoor pool,
baseball fields and three soccer fields used for youth soccer.
On the left, the Officer’s Club, designed by Robert E. Lee. On the right, abandoned fortifications of the fort.
13
Throgs Neck Bridge
This will be the first of eight bridges we will pass under. Opening in 1961, it was the last of the
eight to be put into service (the first bridge to open will be the last we pass under). It was built by
master builder Robert Moses, who commissioned the Swiss-born engineer Othmar Ammann for the
design. Ammann, who had already designed The GWB, the Whitestone, the Verrazano Narrows,
and the Triborough Bridges, used long, curving approaches on land to achieve the height needed to
allow vessels to pass under the bridge. The span is 1,800 feet long between the two towers. The
SUNY Maritime College is located at the tail end of Throgs Neck on the mainland side.
Moses originally planned the bridge in 1945, but didn’t complete the span until 1961. It was
his first bridge which did not include access to pedestrians and bicyclists, reflecting the widespread
use of autos by the early sixties. In building the bridge, Moses had to raze or relocate 420 homes in
the already populated area of Bayside, using eminent domain. While he had done this previously
with relative impunity during the building of the Whitestone, Triborough, George Washington, and
other bridges, the amount of localized resistance added greatly to the cost, and the efforts, while
ultimately unsuccessful, showed that a determined and organized locality can still challenge
centrally planned “progress”. These efforts would help Rye’s own fight against Moses a few years
later, when Moses proposed a bridge across the Sound from Rye to Oyster Bay.
Originally, its neighboring bridge the Whitestone had pedestrian walkways, but these were
removed in 1943. The Throgs Neck is very similar to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which was the
last bridge built by Moses – thankfully, his desire to build a bridge from Rye to Oyster Bay proved to
be a bridge too far.
On the left, the bridge as seen looking west from Fort
Totten Park. On the right, an aerial view of the bridge.
Tollbooths are in lower left and SUNY Maritime
College peninsula in upper middle.
Keep Red Nun 48 on your starboard side as you pass under the Throgs Neck Bridge. At this point, you’re
now in the East River. Note there’s plenty of water in the middle of the channel between the two bridges,
but straying too close to shore on either side will risk either running aground (mainland side) or hitting
underwater pilings (Long Island side).
14
Whitestone Bridge
Unlike many of the other river crossings designed to encourage the growth of this city of
islands, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge was actually delayed due to fears that the increased traffic
would ruin the "character" of the still-rural borough of Queens. The span was proposed originally in
1905, and indeed developers were excited by the opportunity and planned upscale neighborhoods
on Long Island near where the bridge would land. Although the neighborhoods were built, local
residents of the pre-existing communities managed to keep the bridge out of even the planning
stage for nearly 25 years.
However, by the 1930s, Robert Moses wanted this bridge because it would allow people from
the Bronx and further north to visit his state parks on Long Island. He hadn't created Jones Beach
from the swamps of the south shore to have it sitting empty – and as the Depression years passed,
Moses' desires grew. His first major reason came in 1936 with the opening of his Triborough Bridge.
The bridge was almost immediately swamped with motorists; Moses planned this crossing as a
means to lighten the load on the Triborough, and to allow a dedicated Queens-Bronx connection.
The second reason came in 1937, when ground was broken to turn the private flying field on the
north shore of Long Island into New York Municipal Airport (later named LaGuardia). But the third
and latest reason was probably the most important: Moses was selected as chair of the 1939-1940
World's Fair, and wanted to provide easy access to the fairgrounds.
He finally got permission from the New York State Legislature to build the bridge in early 1937.
Moses would become famous in later days for destroying homes and neighborhoods in the name of
"progress". This project would be no exception. Robert Moses needed this bridge built quickly, if it
were to serve as a pathway to the World's Fair grounds in time for its 1939 opening. Moses
selected master designer Othmar Ammann as chief engineer, and Ammann quickly made the
decision pay off.
The two towers of the bridge were built in a mere 18 days, rising from piers built on the rock
that lines the bottom of the East River. The towers were each designed as two closed-box columns
with no diagonal cross-bracing (an Ammann innovation), connected twice by arched struts, one
underneath the deck level and one topping the towers. The flat-topped arch portal would become
something of a trademark for Ammann in later days: the George Washington Bridge and parts of
the Triborough Bridge already had the look, and many of his later bridges would share it. The
anchorages also reflect the simplicity required by the design: shedding artistic embellishment, they
simply follow the natural curve of the cables into the ground.
Another Ammann innovation was the lack of trusses to stiffen the bridge. Ammann instead
reinforced the deck with flexible steel-plate girders, aiming for a sleek, streamlined design in the
Art Deco tradition. As with his earlier triumph, he felt that the sheer weight of the bridge would
keep it steady in the wind. The design was soon called into question when a similar bridge in
Washington State collapsed just months after opening – the so-called “Galloping Gertie” Bridge
that spanned the Tacoma Narrows. Forensic Engineers determined that the failure of the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge was caused by aeroelastic flutter. While I have no clue as to what that is, as a
regular traveler across the Whitestone, I’m pleased to know that Ammann added steel trusses to
the bridge in 1943, giving it the appearance of a rail bridge. The trusses were removed in 2003 and
replaced with fiberglass fairing designed to cut down on wind resistance and to return the bridge to
its original appearance.
An amazing 23 months after the project was started, and six months ahead of schedule, the
bridge was finished. Work completed on April 29, 1939, and the next day (which, coincidentally
15
happened to be the opening day of the World's Fair) Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia opened the bridge
to the public.
Moses had believed that the construction of the bridge would alleviate traffic on the
Triborough Bridge (itself built to provide a second option to the Queensboro Bridge), but quickly
found out that the creation of this additional third bridge actually increased traffic on all three
bridges – driven by the desire of locals to be more mobile and independent. These traffic jams were
not helped by Moses’ pursuit of reducing public transportation and eliminating local ferries in order
to attract even more people to his bridges (as head of the Triboro Commission, every additional car
over any of his bridges meant more tolls into his coffers).
On the left, one of the two towers that hold up the ¾ mile of cable two feet thick, comprised of over 14,600 miles of
individual quarter-inch cable. Note the steel trusses, which date the picture from between 1943 and 2003, when the
trusses were removed.
On the right, a view of the Whitestone looking north, from the Queens side of the East River. Note the arches under the
road deck, Ammann’s nod to the Art Deco fashion of the day.
As you pass under the Whitestone, you’ll be heading towards LaGuardia Airport and Riker’s Island.
Westchester Creek will be coming up on your starboard side, and Powell Cove will be on the port side.
Stay in the channel, and keep the College Point Reef marker (29 feet high atop a small pile of rocks) on
the port side. Hunts Point is on the far side of Westchester Creek.
16
Hunts Point
This peninsula is home to one of the largest food distribution centers in the world, covering
329 acres. It includes the recently relocated Fulton Fish Market, the second largest fish market
after Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market, though Tsukiji is open to the public, and Fulton is only
open to the trade. It also houses a huge meat and vegetable market, supplying the raw materials to
the tens of thousands of restaurants in the tri-state area.
Europeans first settled Hunt’s Point in 1663. At this time, Edward Jessup arrived on the
peninsula and purchased the land from the local Indians. After Jessup died, his widow Elizabeth,
entrusted the land to Thomas Hunt Jr., her son in-law for whom the area is named.
In the two centuries after Thomas Hunts’ inheritance, several other wealthy landowning
families came to occupy the peninsula as well, including the Tiffany family. As time passed and
more New Yorkers became aware of the luxurious lifestyle available in Hunt’s Point, more City
dwellers flocked to the area in the latter half of the 1800’s.
Hunts Point’s status as a home and vacation spot to the city’s elite came to a rather abrupt end
in the period following World War I, when a railroad was built along Southern Boulevard.
Apartment buildings replaced mansions, streets replaced meadows and Hunt’s Point became a
virtual melting pot for the City’s masses.
Aside from being a period of residential growth for Hunt’s Point, the 20th century was also a
time of industrial expansion for the peninsula. As more people moved to the area, the city’s
business owners began to realize the advantages of locating to Hunt’s Point. Among them were the
convenient access to the Tri-State region, the existing rail lines running through the area and the
abundance of space available for the development of industrial and commercial activity.
This discovery led to an influx of businesses to the area. As the momentum of incoming
businesses increased, the reputation of Hunt’s Point grew accordingly among business circles. With
the openings of the New York City Produce market in 1967 and Hunts Point Meat Market in 1974,
and culminating with the designation of Hunts Point as an In-Place-Industrial Park in 1980, Hunts
Point has grown into a successful economic zone. The Hunts Point Industrial Park hosts over 800
businesses providing an array of products and services to points throughout the world.
However, the second half of the 20th century, has been a difficult time for the district's
residential community. Characterized by frequent arson and mass abandonment throughout the
1960s, 70s and 80s, this period was a low point in the area's history. Living conditions became so
difficult that almost 60,000 residents, approximately two-thirds of the existing population, left the
neighborhood during the 1970s.
Hunts Point is also home to two detention centers, including the Vernon C. Bain Correctional
Center, that large barge you see on the north shore. It houses maximum security prisoners, so if
you see anyone swimming towards you in the water, it’s best if you don’t pick them up without first
alerting the Coast Guard.
17
LaGuardia Airport
The current site of the airport was originally used by the Gala Amusement Park, owned by the
Steinway family. It was razed and transformed in 1929 into a 105- acre private flying field named
after Glenn H. Curtiss, the pioneer Long Island aviator, and later called North Beach Airport. After
New York City's takeover and reconstruction, it was re-named New York Municipal AirportLaGuardia Field, then in 1953, the name changed again to simply to "LaGuardia Airport" for Fiorello
La Guardia, the mayor of New York when the airport was built originally built.
The initiative to develop the airport for commercial flights began with a typical outburst by
New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia upon the arrival of his TWA flight at Newark Liberty
International Airport — the only commercial airport serving the New York City region at the time.
His ticket said "New York", and in his imitable way, he demanded to be taken to New York, ordering
the plane to be flown to Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field. He gave an impromptu press conference to
reporters along the way. He urged New Yorkers to support a new airport within their city. American
Airlines accepted La Guardia's offer to start a pilot program of scheduled flights to Floyd Bennett,
although the program failed after several months because of Newark's better proximity to
Manhattan (remember, travellers had to traverse all of Brooklyn's residential neighborhoods to get
to Floyd Bennett Field, located on the western side of Jamaica Bay, across from JFK and next to
Sheepshead Bay). La Guardia went as far as to offer police escorts to airport limousines in an
attempt to get American Airlines to continue operating the pilot program.
La Guardia and American executives began an alternative plan to build a new airport in
Queens, where it could take advantage of the then-new Queens-Midtown Tunnel to Manhattan.
The existing North Beach Airport was an obvious location, but much too small for the sort of airport
that was being planned. With backing and assistance from the Works Progress Administration,
construction began in 1937. Building on the site required moving landfill from Rikers Island, then a
garbage dump, onto a metal reinforcing framework. The framework below the airport still causes
magnetic interference on the compasses of outgoing aircraft: signs on the airfield warn pilots about
the problem. (Note to skippers – if it does impact your compass bearing, you’re far too close!)
Because of American's pivotal role in the development of the airport, La Guardia gave the
airline extra real estate during the airport's first year of operation, including an unprecedented four
hangars. American opened its first Admirals Club in 1939, the first private airline club in the world.
The club's space was originally a large office space reserved for the mayor, but after receiving
criticism, La Guardia leased the space to American Airlines.
The airport was dedicated in October 1939 as the New York Municipal Airport and opened for
business in December. Not everyone was as enthusiastic as La Guardia about the project. Some
regarded it as a $40-million boondoggle, but the public was fascinated by the very idea of air travel,
and thousands traveled to the airport to pay a dime fee in order to watch airliners land and take
off. The airport was soon a huge financial success.
TIME called the airport "the most pretentious land and seaplane base in the world." Even
before the project was completed La Guardia had won commitments from the five largest airlines
(Pan American Airways, American, United, Eastern Air Lines and Transcontinental & Western Air) to
use the field as soon as it opened. Transatlantic landplane airline flights started in late 1945; some
continued after Idlewild opened in July 1948, but the last ones shifted to Idlewild in April 1951.
Newspaper accounts alternately referred to the airfield as New York Municipal Airport and La
Guardia Field until the modern name was officially applied when the airport moved to Port of New
York Authority control under a lease with New York City in 1947.
18
LaGuardia opened with four runways at 45-degree angles to each other, the longest being
6,000 feet. One runway was closed soon after a United DC-4 ran off the south end in 1947; another
runway was closed around 1958, allowing La Guardia's terminal to expand northward after 1960.
Although LaGuardia was a large airport for the era in which it was built, it soon became too
small. The increase in traffic at La Guardia and safety concerns prompted the closure of nearby
Flushing Airport in 1984. Also in 1984, to further combat overcrowding at LGA, the Port Authority
instituted a Sunday-thru-Friday "perimeter rule" banning nonstop flights from LaGuardia to cities
more than 1,500 miles away; at the time, Denver was the only such city with nonstop flights, and it
became the only exception to the rule. Additionally, the FAA also limited the number of flights and
types of aircraft that could operate at La Guardia.
LaGuardia's traffic continued to grow. By 2000, the airport routinely experienced overcrowding
delays, many more than an hour long. That year, Congress passed legislation to revoke the federal
traffic limits on LaGuardia by 2007. The reduced demand for air travel following the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks on New York City quickly slowed LaGuardia's traffic growth, helping to
mitigate the airport's delays. Ongoing Port Authority investments to renovate the Central Terminal
Building and improve the airfield layout have also made the airport's operations more efficient in
recent years, and it is now the busiest airport in the United States without any service to Europe.
The airport was shut down for three days following Hurricane Sandy.
The airport as seen from the air. Note Rikers Island on the top of the photo, the Brothers above Rikers,
Hunts Point in the top right corner, and Randall’s Island in the top left corner.
As we travel past LGA and Rikers, we will be passing by the glide path for incoming planes, which has
certain restrictions for ships. Stay well out of the area between College Point and Rikers Island, as there
are height restrictions for superstructures and masts.
19
Riker’s Island
Riker’s Island, a place of residence to some of New York’s most colorful characters, needs little
introduction to frequent watchers of Law and Order and CSI. It is the city’s main jail complex,
hosting over 14,000 ne’er-do-wells while they contemplate the errors of their ways. This island has
been home to the “Big House” since 1932, replacing an earlier prison on Roosevelt Island. Past
guests include such notables as Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz; punk rocker and Sex Pistol
Sid Vicious; rapper bad boy Tupac Shakur; Beatle killer Mark David Chapman; and French paramour
of chambermaids Dominique Strauss-Kahn. In 1957, Northeast Airlines flight 823 crashed onto the
island shortly after taking off from La Guardia Airport, killing 20. In true New York fashion during an
emergency, both guards and inmates rushed to assist survivors, and many of the assisting inmates
were later released or rewarded with a sentence reduction.
The Big Apple’s Big House for Bad Apples, as seen from the air.
As we sail past College Point, LGA, and Rikers Island, we will be travelling through the New York Vessel
Traffic Service Area. The USCG operates a mandatory Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) system. Commercial
traffic is required to report their intentions using channel 11 on the VHF radio. VTS has the responsibility
of coordinating vessel traffic movements to instill good order and predictability in the Port of New York.
20
The Brother Islands
North Brother Island
North Brother Island is a place of misery. It was once the home of a hospital for patients
suffering from smallpox, typhoid, and other quarantined diseases. The ruins are still clearly visible.
Typhoid Mary lived there in the 20’s and 30’s, eventually dying on site in 1938. The hospital closed
shortly thereafter. It later housed war veterans during a housing shortage for a while in the late
40s, and then became a home for drug addicts in the 50s.
This island was the site of the famous wreck of the steamship General Slocum, which caught
fire on June 15, 1904 while en route to Eaton’s Neck for a church outing. Over 1,000 people died,
New York’s worst disaster until 9/11. Desperate mothers placed life jackets on their children and
tossed them into the water, only to watch in horror as their children sank instead of floating. Most
of those on board were women and children who, like many Americans of the time, could not
swim; even victims who did not don the worthless life preservers found that their heavy wool
clothing weighed them down in the water. Some passengers attempted to jump into the river, but
the heavy women's clothing of the day made swimming almost impossible and dragged them
underwater to drown. Many died when the floors of the overloaded boat collapsed; others were
battered by the still-turning paddles as they attempted to escape into the water or over the sides.
Later investigations revealed gross incompetence on the part of the captain, who sped up the
vessel and fanned the flames instead of bringing the boat closer to shore. The ship had significant
amounts of accelerants onboard (paint, rags, and lamp oil), the crew had never had a fire drill, fire
hoses and the inferior lifejackets had been allowed to rot, and lifeboats were reportedly wired and
painted in place. (Note to AYC captains – count life jackets and check expiry dates of all fire
extinguishers!)
It’s now a bird sanctuary and off limits to the public. From the 80’s until the early 2000’s it
supported one of the area’s largest nesting colonies of the black-crowned night heron, but like the
smallpox victims, veterans, and heroin addicts, that crowd has also moved to better real estate.
South Brother Island
South Brother Island has proven to be a better investment than the island of Manhattan. It
was once the summer home of Jacob Ruppert, a brewery magnate and early owner of the New
York Yankees who brought the Babe to the New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox. The house
burned down in 1909, and the isle has been vacant ever since, with no traces of the original
structure.
Why is it such a great investment, you ask? In 1975, the city sold South Brother Island to
Hampton Scows Inc, a Long Island investment company, for $10. Hampton Scows held the property
until November 2007, when it sold the island back to the City of New York for $2,000,000 - yielding
an average annual return of 46% over 32 years. By contrast, the $24 of trinkets used to purchase
Manhattan in 1629 has only yielded an AAR of 6% (though it does serve as home to quite a few
people, unlike South Brother). Lesson – make all your real estate deals with municipalities, not
private enterprise!
Once past North and South Brother Islands, we’ll be turning to port, heading due southwest. This will
take us through the Middle Ground, which is the entrance to Hell Gate. The tide will pick up noticeably as
we enter this narrow area – keep as much as possible in the center of the channel, aiming to pass
through the center of both bridges.
21
Port Morris
Port Morris located to the north of North Brother Island. It has been a heavily industrial area
since the mid-1800’s, when the Morris family scion Gouverneur Morris, Jr, established a deep water
port alongside the East River, and built a two mile railroad to the family estate (now Melrose, not
far from Yankee Stadium). The port was active until the mid-forties. As you pass by, you can still
see the remnants of an abandoned ferry terminal. While he wasn’t quite as successful as his father
in politics, he did have a hand as a founder of the Republican Party.
His father, Gouverneur Morris, Sr, was a rather colorful and interesting character. A college
graduate from Columbia College at age 16, a signer to the Articles of Confederation and a co-writer
of the Constitution (he penned the Preamble), he was a forceful proponent of religious liberties and
considered slavery an abomination, but also did not trust the common man with voting powers,
thinking they would eventually sell their votes to the rich (as if!).
He served the diplomatic corps in France during the French Revolution, and once quelled a
mob bent on killing him by un-strapping his peg leg and yelling he had already given a limb for
freedom (though he lost the leg as a result of jumping out a window to escape a jealous husband).
He was also chairman of the Erie Canal Commission, and predicted “the proudest empire in Europe
is but a bubble compared to what America will be, must be, in the course of two centuries, perhaps
of one." At the ripe old age of 57, he married, and had his son at the age of 61.
Port Morris is also the location of the Hell Gate generating plant of Consolidated Edison,
noteworthy for being the site where George Metesky, New York City’s Mad Bomber, was injured in
1931. After Con Ed refused to pay him for worker’s compensation, he terrorized New York City for
16 years in the 1940s and 1950s with explosives planted in theaters, terminals, libraries and offices.
Bombs were left in phone booths, storage lockers and restrooms in public buildings, including
Grand Central Terminal, Pennsylvania Station, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Public Library,
the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the RCA Building, as well as in the New York City Subway.
Notes were routinely sent to newspapers and attached to some bombs that failed to detonate,
heavily criticizing Con Edison… and this was 70 years before Superstorm Sandy! New York’s Finest
eventually tracked down this pre-cursor to the Unibomber, and he spent decades in the loony bin
before being sprung in the early 70’s after expressing regret for his actions.
Another interesting anecdote of Port Morris… there is some evidence that a British paymaster
frigate, HMS Hussar, went down off the coast here during the Revolutionary war with millions of
dollars in payroll gold aboard. No recovery was ever made, but before you don a wetsuit and scuba
gear, bear in mind that the Army Corps of Engineers used about 150 tons of explosives to rearrange the underwater topographical features of the area way back in 1875.
22
Randall’s Island/Wards Island
Randall’s Island and Wards Island were once separated by a stream between them, but
unwanted debris from a rapidly growing city was dumped into the stream from 1840 until the
1920’s, eventually conjoining the islands. The Island complex now boasts over 60 athletic fields, a
world-class track and field facility (where the aptly named Usain Bolt set a new world record of 9.76
seconds for the 100 yard dash in May, ’08), a golfing center, a tennis center with 20 courts, and
almost 5 miles of waterfront pathways with stunning views.
Randall’s Island
Native Americans called the island Minnahanonck. It was purchased from the Indians in 1637
by Dutch Governor Wouter Van Twiller and used for farming. John Montresor, an engineer with the
British army, purchased the island in 1772. He lived on it, now renamed Montresor's Island, with his
wife until the Revolutionary War forced him to deploy. The British used his island to launch
amphibious attacks on Manhattan, and Montresor's house on the island was burned in 1777. He
resigned his commission and returned to England in 1778, but retained ownership of the island
until the British evacuated the city in 1783, whereupon it was confiscated and later sold to
Jonathan Randle (or Randall) in 1784. His heirs sold it to the city in 1835 for $60,000.
In the 19th century, Randall's Island became home to an orphanage, poor house, burial ground
for the poor, idiot asylum, homeopathic hospital and rest home for Civil War veterans. It was also
site of the New York House of Refuge, a reform school completed in 1854 for juvenile delinquents
or juveniles adjudicated as vagrants.
The art deco Triborough Bridge Authority Building, the former office and base of Robert
Moses, still stands on the island.
As part of the improvements on the Island, two natural environments, a salt marsh and a
freshwater wetland, have been established. Through the process of excavating over 20,000 cubic
yards of debris, installing clean sand, and planting native marsh grasses, 4 acres of salt marsh has
been created surrounding the Little Hell Gate Inlet on the western edge of the Island. Just across
from the salt marsh, 4 acres of freshwater wetlands were also restored. After the removal of almost
15,000 cubic yards of debris and fill, the freshwater wetland site was planted with native
herbaceous, shrub, and tree species, such as switchgrass, aster, dogwood, and oak. In addition, the
restoration projects play a crucial role in an innovative Park-wide filtration system that collects
storm water from the adjacent sports fields, pathways and paved areas and channels it through the
Wetlands, where the new plants naturally filter pollutants before reaching the East River and the
Long Island Sound.
Wards Island
Wards Island is part of the borough of Manhattan. In the past seventy years, it was joined to
Randall's Island to the north by landfill. The two islands together are run by the Randall's Island
Sports Foundation under a partnership agreement with the New York City Department of Parks and
Recreation. Together, the two islands have a total population of 1,386 living on 2.2 km2 of land
area.
Viaducts leading to the Triborough Bridge and Hell Gate bridges pass overhead. Vehicular
access is by the Little Hell Gate bridge from Randall's Island, while a narrow pedestrian and
bicycling bridge, Wards Island Bridge, links the island to the east side of Manhattan in Harlem.
Whatever you do on Ward’s Island, BEHAVE! The island is home to several public facilities and
lots of police, including:
23
1. the New York State Forensic Psychiatric Center for the Criminally Insane (patrolled by
the New York State Office of Mental Health Police);
2. a New York City Department of Environmental Protection wastewater treatment plant
(patrolled by New York City Department of Environmental Protection Police);
3. a homeless shelter run by the New York City Department of Homeless Services
(patrolled by the New York City Department of Homeless Services Police); and
4. a New York State Police Troop (providing investigative services to the Bureau of
Criminal Investigation, the Narcotics Enforcement Unit, and the Organized Crime Track
Force).
Remember, Riker’s Island is very close by! The island is also home to Wards Island Park, which
offers stunning views, picnic fields, and athletic fields.
During the Revolutionary War the island served as a military post for the British military. After
the war ended, Jaspar Ward and Bartholomew Ward took ownership of the island that later carried
their surname. Although a small population had lived on the island since as early as the 17th
century, the Ward brothers developed the island more heavily by building a cotton mill and building
the first bridge to cross the East River in 1807, connecting the island with Manhattan at 114th
Street. Their wooden drawbridge lasted until 1821, when it was destroyed in a storm. After the
bridge was destroyed, the island was largely abandoned until 1840, when the island was
transformed into a dumping ground for everything unwanted in New York City. Between 1840 and
1930, the island was used for:
A final burial ground of hundreds of thousands of bodies relocated from the
Madison Square and Bryant Park graveyards.
The State Emigrant Refuge, a hospital for sick and destitute immigrants, opened in
1847 and the biggest hospital complex in the world during the 1850s.
The New York City Asylum for the Insane, opened around 1863.
An immigration station from 1860 until the 1892 opening of Ellis Island.
Manhattan State Hospital, operated by the New York State Department of Mental
Hygiene when it took over the immigration and asylum buildings in 1899. With
4,400 patients, it was the largest psychiatric institution in the world. The 1920
census notes that the hospital had a total of 6,045 patients. It later became the
Manhattan Psychiatric Center.
Wards Island began to change when the 1930 Metropolitan Conference of Parks
recommended transforming Randall's and Wards islands into recreational parks. Robert Moses,
Parks Commissioner in 1934, announced the plans for developing Wards Island. The city would
connect it to Randall's Island just to the north by filling Little Hell Gate and using the land for
playing fields and promenades.
The creation of the park was followed by the development of the Triborough Bridge in 1936
and the building of the Ward's Island Water Pollution Control Plant, built in 1937. It’s rather
puzzling that a Parks Commissioner would spend money building a public park, then spend even
more money to desecrate the park by building a major bridge above the park and a foul-smelling
pollution control plant next to the park – but that was the way in which Robert Moses operated,
solving problems without regard to the impact of the solution, and with little thought to cost.
The current Wards Island Bridge, a pedestrian bridge connecting the island to Manhattan by
scaling the Harlem River, was built in 1951. It was designed to give access to Wards Island Park from
East Harlem, which has few public green spaces. In 2006 the original walkway of the Triborough
24
Bridge Queens leg, alighting in Randall's Island, was demolished and a shorter, wider and less steep
one built to connect to Wards Island.
One last little anecdote of Ward Island… the point at the southeastern tip of the island was
designated "Negro Point", based on the unofficial usage of riverboat pilots dating back to at least
1851. Local historians are unsure how the small curve of land facing Hell Gate got its name, but in
2001, Parks Commissioner Henry Stern deemed the moniker offensive and replaced it with "Scylla
Point", pairing it with Charybdis Playground in Astoria Park. Naming such reference points in a place
called Hell Gate after two of the most noted maritime hazards (Scylla and Charybdis, from Homer’s
Odyssey) might have appealed to a landlubber, but the original name is still used on marine charts.
Aerial view of Randall and Wards islands. Clockwise, from right: Hell Gate and Triborough Bridge
complexes, Wards Island footbridge from Manhattan, Harlem River, Triborough Bridge (Manhattan to
Randall), and Bronx Kills. The small creek that separated these two islands has all but disappeared, but a close
look will reveal the original four railroad bridge towers over the creek.
25
Hell Gate Bridge
Hell Gate Bridge was built in 1917 to connect the New York Rail Road and the Pennsylvania Rail
Road, allowing passengers arriving in Penn Station to continue travelling to New England without
schlepping their luggage from Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal. The steel arch railroad
bridge we’re passing under is the last of three bridges of the Hell Gate rail complex designed by
Gustav Lindenthal to carry trains from New England to Penn Station (via Long Island City).
The first such bridge of the complex connects Randall’s Island with the Bronx with a simple
truss bridge. This bridge is plainly visible off the starboard side as we head away from South
Brother Island, just before the Laurence Point Power Plant (off the port side) and just after the ruins
of a ferry terminal next to two red and white smokestacks (on the starboard side). When the truss
bridge was originally constructed, it spanned the Bronx Kill, but much of that stream has been filled
to build ball fields in the sunken meadow of Randall’s Island Park.
The middle bridge of the Hell Gate rail complex spanned the narrow stream between Randall’s
Island and Ward Island (long since filled in). Lindenthal designed an inverted bowstring truss bridge.
It can be seen from the water – look for two sets of masonry towers with large speres on top.
Between these towers, you’ll see trusswork beneath the rails.
The last bridge is a stellar example of elegant design. Designer Gustav Lindenthal was an
Austrian immigrant who had no formal education. Despite showing promise as a young engineer
working for the Swiss railroad, his lack of credentials hampered his ability to design and build civil
engineering projects – so he emigrated to the U.S. Switzerland’s loss was America’s gain, as
Lindenthal constantly sought to blend strength and beauty in all his works.
After building several smaller projects in Pennylvania and “out West”, Lindenthal opened his
own engineering design firm in New York and drew plans for a railroad bridge across the Hudson.
The Pennsylvania railroad eventually opted for a tunnel instead, but by then Linderthal was working
on a new design – the Hell Gate rail complex. (It’s interesting to note that his original design for a
Hudson Bridge by 57th Street would form the blueprint of the eventually constructed George
Washington Bridge forty years later).
The original design for the Hell Gate Bridge was modified by Lindenthal to address two
concerns. The original plans called for 1) two parallel arches spanning the river, and 2) steel piers
built using latticework for the long approach of the railroad as it approached the bridge.
The first concern was the perception by many that the original gap of 15 feet between the top
arch and the masonry towers weakened the design. (As you face the bridge, imagine the top arch
paralleling the bottom arch, and you can see how some might view it as unstable). The second
concern was that the metal latticework would allow those living on Randalls and Wards Islands at
the time – delinquent boys, “idiots” (a 19th century medical term for the feeble-minded), and the
insane – to climb up onto the railroad, and escape into the general population.
Although the first fear of instability was unfounded, Lindenthal added aesthetic girders
between the upper chord of the arch and the top half of the towers, to make the structure appear
more robust. In doing this simple and inexpensive fix, he greatly improved the aesthetic
appearance of the structure, and made a common rail bridge a thing of beauty. 15 years after its
completion, the design inspired the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia.
To address the second concern, he opted for building the aqueduct piers out of smooth
concrete, to prohibit anyone from scaling onto this new path off the island. We’re fortunate that
razor wire had not yet been invented in Lindenthal’s time – had it been used as a deterrent to
escaping, it would appear to any boater passing underneath this bridge that they were entering a
rather large insane asylum (which, some claim, is exactly what New York City is!)
26
The engineering performed by Lindenthal was so precise that when the last section of the
main span was lifted into place, the final adjustment needed to join everything together was only a
half-inch. At that time, it was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge was
opened in 1931. Lindenthal, a perfectionist by nature, would have been pleased to learn that his
design has been rated as the most robust of all New York City bridges. Several years back, Discover
magazine determined that if humans were to disappear from the face of the earth, most NYC
bridges would fall in about 300 years, but the Hell Gate Bridge would last for at least a millennium.
Thanks to the lack of a formal education, Lindenthal challenged the status quo and became a
visionary. Trains were a very popular mode of transportation during his time and made up a
majority of large bridge building that took place. To ensure that bridges were strong enough to
hold the trains they carried, engineers of the day would calculate the strength of the bridge based
on the entire weight of the train placed on the middle of the bridge. This methodology greatly overcompensated the bridge design, leading to oversized bridges taking up more space and materials
than needed - and leading to greater building expenses as well.
Lindenthal realized that any bridge does not need to support the full load of a train in the
center, as the weight is distributed evenly as the train moves across the bridge. This realization
allowed him to create stable bridges that were much lighter, cheaper, and faster to build. He was
also a pioneer in the use of new materials such as reinforced concrete, cable, and steel.
Ask any engineering student to name a bridge engineer of the 19th century, and you’ll most
often hear John Roebling. That’s the power of being the first – and we’ll hear more about him
down-river. But remember the name Lindenthal!
A view of the bridge, looking south, towards the city. Behind it lies the Triborough Bridge.
27
Triborough Bridge
Master Builder Robert Moses built the Triborough Bridge during the Great Depression to route
auto traffic from Manhattan and the Bronx to Long Island. Similar to the Hell Gate Bridge, the
Triborough Bridge connects the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens via three separate spans. Moses
ensured that the legal structure of the public authority used to build the bridge and the bond
covenants of the debt raised made the Triboro Commission impervious to influence from mayors
and governors.
Amazingly, while New York City and New York State were perpetually strapped for money
during the Depression years, the bridge's toll revenues amounted to tens of millions of dollars a
year, allowing the Commission the freedom of financing hundreds of millions of dollars in other
projects. This resulted in Moses being the only person in New York capable of funding large public
construction projects without public approval. Toll revenues rose quickly, as traffic on the bridges
exceeded all projections. Rather than pay off the bonds, Moses sought other toll projects to build, a
cycle that fed on itself for a number of years.
Like many if not all of New York City's river crossings, the original idea was delayed for years; it
is hard to imagine that this city of islands would be so long in connecting them, but it was indeed
the case. The three-way span was first proposed in 1916 by engineer Edward A. Byrne. Gustav
Lindenthal also offered a plan in the early 1920s, desiring to add a second deck to his recently
completed Hell Gate railroad bridge for automobile traffic, rather than have another bridge built
that would stop people admiring the beauty of his bridge. Lindenthal's plans also called for the
bridge to land on Manhattan at two points, both further south than its current 125th St. approach.
Ground was finally broken by Mayor Jimmy Walker on October 25, 1929, the Friday following
the "Black Thursday" of the stock market crash. The $5.4 million intended for bridge construction
was quickly spent, and work was halted in early 1930. Legal and political trouble delayed the
project further, until Robert Moses, in his frenzy of park and highway building all over New York
State, talked governor Al Smith into restarting the project, under his control, claiming that this
bridge was essential in unifying the New York City parkway system. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia then
installed Moses as the new chair of the Triborough Bridge Authority, and President Franklin
Roosevelt authorized a $37 million loan to the authority under the new Public Works Authority.
The original plans of the bridge, designed by Arthur I. Perry, called for a Hell Gate crossing of
two towers and four cables, suspending a two-deck, 16-lane road between them. Moses put
Othmar Ammann (designer of the George Washington Bridge) in charge of the project before
construction even resumed. Ammann redesigned the bridge to keep costs down, while still keeping
some of Perry's ideas, and making sure it fit with the few parts already constructed. The number of
decks was reduced to one, to save time and cost, and because Moses did not feel that the bridge
would be used heavily enough to warrant the extra expense. The bridge was also redesigned to be
bare steel rather than the granite-clad idea previously postulated; this was partly to keep weight
and costs down, and partly as a stab at the Tammany powers, who held a lot of interest in nearby
granite quarries. This redesign, all in the current Art Deco style, saved the Authority about $10
million.
The second bridge in the complex crossed what is technically the Harlem River, between
Randall's Island and Manhattan Island. Moses wanted the bridge to terminate at 103rd street,
running in a straight line across the water from Queens. However, the original plans called for the
bridge to land on 125th street. The truth was soon discovered; the reason the site was chosen was
because William Randolph Hearst owned the land in question and wanted the city to buy it. Moses
bowed to Hearst's wishes, knowing that if he didn't, Hearst would use his influence to slow the
28
bridge's construction further. This would, however, be the only real concession Moses made to
outside forces.
This span is actually three, with the central one being the required lifting bridge (for the river
was (and is) still used for shipping). The six-lane (plus two sidewalks) bridge was the largest of its
kind when it opened, but it was saved from being the heaviest by Ammann's cost-cutting measures;
the steel-plated roadway was covered with planks of asphalt rather than paved with concrete.
The third bridge crosses the Bronx Kills between Randall's Island and the Bronx. The bridge was
designed so that if the then-unnavigable Kills were ever made open, it could be converted into a
lifting bridge. The Kills were eventually all but filled in by parkland, so this feature was never
needed. The fourth span crosses the now non-existant gap between Randall's and Ward's Island,
filled in by Moses' parks.
The whole bridge complex was carefully designed for ease of traffic flow, contrary to what
current users may think. The cloverleaf interchange was designed carefully that all twenty-two
lanes of traffic, going in up to twelve separate directions, would never require roads to intersect
(using three separate planes to do so), and would always result in the drivers ending up at one (and
only one) toll booth, two separate plazas of which were provided.
The leftover money was used by Moses to build what were, through various semantic
loopholes, classified as "approach lanes". Rather than deal with the cost of condemning all of the
homes that lay between the Northern Boulevard terminus of his Grand Central Parkway and the
bridge, Moses had sand dragged up from the Rockaways, mixed with stone, and dumped off of the
coast of Long Island; this mixture was then covered in concrete and turned into the western end of
the Grand Central Parkway, curving into the approach for the bridge. The East River Parkway (now
the FDR Drive) was built through more of Moses' machinations from the north end of York Avenue
(92nd Street) up to the bridge's landing at 125th Street. Further political maneuvering brought
about the destruction of the mental hospitals on the two East River islands and allowed Moses to
build his parks, as well as the new headquarters of the Authority.
The construction of this bridge, or these bridges and parkways and parks, was such a massive
undertaking that it essentially supported the country's economy. Each girder of the bridge
necessitated the joining of four barges to carry it to the site. Cement factories, closed by the
Depression, were reopened to provide the massive amounts of concrete the bridge requirer. To
provide the wood that built the forms into which the concrete was poured, forests in Oregon were
levelled. Workers in 134 cities in 20 states were put to work on the bridge complex.
The bridge tolls, a steep 25 cents, went to pay back the bonds issued by the Triborough Bridge
Authority to help pay for its construction; the amount quickly became a surplus and was used in
part to help build the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. The rate at which the bridge paid for itself also
went far in paving the way for other crossings designed by the Authority.
Once we pass underneath the two bridges by Hell Gate, we’ll be turning to starboard, towards Mill Rock,
due west-northwest, then, once past Mill Rock, turning back to port, heading southwest again, and
aiming straight down the river – we will keep Mill Rock on our starboard side. Note that the current will
tend to push your vessel towards Manhattan, so concentrate on keeping in mid-channel.
29
Hell Gate
Hell Gate is the narrowest part of the tidal strait known as the East River, separating Astoria,
Queens from Randall's Island/Wards Island (formerly two separate islands that are now joined by
landfill). While it sounds dramatic, picturing an opening to the underworld, the name "Hell Gate" is
a corruption of the Dutch phrase Hellegat, which means "bright gate ". The term was originally
applied to the entirety of the East River. The strait was first navigated by described in the journals
of Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, the first European known to have navigated the strait in 1614.
Block may have been a terrific navigator, but he really blew it when it came to naming things after
himself – instead of calling Manhattan Block Island, he opted for a much smaller isle on the other
end of the Sound… big mistake for a fame-seeking explorer!
By the late 19th century, hundreds of ships (including the previously mentioned HMS Hussar)
had sunk in the strait, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clear obstacles from the strait
using explosives; the process would last seventy years. On September 24, 1876, the Corps used 25
tons of explosives to blast the dangerous rocks. Nine years later, on October 10, 1885, the Corps
annihilated Flood Rock with 150 tons of explosives, sending a geyser of water 250 feet in the air.
The blast, described as the largest planned explosion prior to the atomic bomb, was felt as far away
as Princeton, New Jersey. Rubble from the detonation was used in 1890 to fill the gap between
Great Mill Rock and Little Mill Rock, merging the two islands into a single island, Mill Rock.
A nice view of Hell Gate from under the Hell Gate Bridge – during Hurricane Sandy. We should expect
th
considerably calmer waters on June 8 . Note the absence of any traffic on the Triborough, which was closed
during the storm.
30
Mill Rock
Mill Rock is the small unpopulated island between Manhattan and Queens in New York City,
about 4 acres in size. In 1701, John Marsh built a mill, giving the island its name. At that time there
were two islands, Great Mill Rock and Little Mill Rock.
It was used as an American fort during the War of 1812, where the War Department built a
blockhouse with two cannons on Great Mill Rock. This fortification was part of a chain of
blockhouses that was intended to defend New York Harbor and protect the passage into Long
Island Sound from the British Navy. The fort, along with Hell Gate, was a formidable barricade for
the old wooden sailing vessels of the day.
Close by the two islands was Flood Rock, the most treacherous impediment to East River
shipping. In 1885, the United States Army Corps of Engineers detonated 150 tons of explosives on
adjoining Flood Rock. It was the most forceful explosion in New York City's history at the time; it
was felt as far away as Princeton, New Jersey. The explosion has been described as "the largest
planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb,". In 1890 the Flood Rock remnants
were used to fill the space between Great and Little Mill Rocks, producing Mill Rock.
The island now serves as the city's most underutilized park, still maintained by the New York
City Department of Parks and Recreation, but devoid of any visitors. The park is populated by a few
short trees. It has since been allowed to return to a state of shrubbery (Monte Python fans, take
note!)
There is a dock on the southern shore of the island but has not been opened to the public
since the 1960s when there were public events. This is a shame - because of its locale between
Queens and Manhattan, the island is a great spot for views of the towering skyscrapers of Midtown
Manhattan, and also provides views of the Triborough Bridge and the Queensboro Bridge.
Since roughly 2008 the island has been home to a nesting colony of Black-crowned Night
Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and gulls and cormorants. The herons and egrets are thought
to have relocated to Mill Rock from nearby North Brother Island. There are no plans, present or
future, for the island.
Mill Rock, the city’s most underutilized parkland.
31
Carl Shurz Park/Horn’s Hook
Carl Shurz Park is a 15 acre public park on the Upper East Side of New York City, named for
German-born Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz in 1910, at the edge of what was then the solidly
German-American community of Yorkville. It overlooks the waters of Hell Gate and Wards Island in
the East River, and is the site of Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the Mayor of New York
since 1942 (though current mayor Michael Bloomberg does not live there). There are tours of the
restored building every Wednesday.
The park's waterfront promenade is a deck built over the FDR Drive, enclosing the roadway
except on the side facing the East River. The park is bordered on the west by East End Avenue and
on the south by Gracie Square, the extension of East 84th Street to the river. The Manhattan
Waterfront Greenway passes along the promenade platform.
Visitors to the park will find winding, shady paths, green lawns, waterfront views, basketball
courts, a large playground for children, and two dog runs. The park is maintained with the help of
volunteers and a full-time staff of gardeners.
The bluff overlooking a curve in the East River at this point was named by an early owner,
Siebert Classen, "Hoorn's Hook", for his native town of Hoorn on the Zuider Zee (that's Dutch for
Southern Sea). Another namesake for the town is Cape Horn, the most southerly point of the
Americas, named when Willem Schouten became the first to round the cape in 1616. During the
Revolution, Horn’s Hook held a 9 gun battery, placed in Feb 1776 for the defense of Manhattan
Island. Located about what is now 89th Street and East End Avenue, opposite Ward's Island and
Hell Gate, the star shaped battery came under fire in September 1776 from the British in Queens.
British occupation saw the fort's restoration and addition of palisades and supporting batteries and
a palisaded blockhouse. After the war the new owner of the fort, Archibald Gracie, leveled the
works in 1794 and erected a mansion in 1799 and enlarged in 1811, now home for NYC Mayors.
The first house on Horn's Hook was built for Jacob Walton, a few years before the Revolution,
when the picturesque site suddenly gained tactical importance in the control of the East River. In
February 1776, the house and grounds were commandeered for an American battery of nine guns
on the site. This drew British fire on 15 September 1776, in a mopping-up operation to secure all of
Manhattan Island following the Battle of Long Island; the bombardment demolished Walton's
house and forced an American withdrawal. The British kept an encampment on the site until
Evacuation Day, 1783. Archibald Gracie leveled the remains of the star-shaped fort and constructed
his timber-framed villa in 1799.
The section of the park lying south of 86th Street was used as a picnic ground when the
northern section was acquired by the City of New York in 1891. The easternmost block of 86th
Street was then acquired, and the street de-mapped. A landscape design by Calvert Vaux and
Samuel Parsons was completed in 1902.
The Park was reconstructed in 1935 by Robert Moses, following the creation of the FDR Drive.
The Park's restoration from a neglected state in the early 1970s was due to the energies of a
neighborhood group, the not-for-profit Carl Schurz Park Association, originally interested in
cleaning up a playground area.
At this point, we should be picking up speed, and if you’re still reading, congratulations! You’ve made it
through Hell Gate. As promised, it wasn’t quite the Gates of Hell, was it? Keep Roosevelt Island on your
port side as we travel down the river, relax, and take in the local sites – the tightest part of the passage is
now behind you. The current will slow down as the river widens. Still, keep a sharp lookout at other
vessels, and maintain a steady course and speed.
32
Roosevelt Island
This long, skinny island boasts a lighthouse at one end and a ruins at the other. For nearly two
centuries, this island was known as Blackwell’sIsland, named after the family that long owned the
island. Their ancestral home still stands near the center of the island, one of the oldest remaining
farmhouses dating back to the Revolution era. The island was purchased by the City of New York in
1828 and transformed into an island of municipal institutions including prisons, poor houses, and
hospitals. In 1921, the island was renamed Welfare Island, reflecting the status of many of its
inhabitants. The Blackwell home has survived, and is now used as a community center for the
island.
The jails and hospitals on the isle housed some pretty famous inmates, such as actress Mae
West, singer Billie Holiday, Dutch Shultz, and William Marcy “Boss” Tweed (former Mayor of New
York). The jails were closed down shortly after a new jail facility was opened on Rikers Island in
1935. Undercover reporter Nellie Bly made journalistic history when she went undercover as a
patient in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum, later detailing her time in the New York World. In the late
1960s, plans were developed to turn a portion of the island into a residential community. The first
housing complex opened in 1975, two years after the island had been renamed Roosevelt Island.
Today, an aerial tramway links the island to Manhattan, and a single bridge provides car access to
Queens. Former (voluntary) residents include Kofi Annan, Buddy Hackett, Sarah Jessica Parker, and
Sonia Braga.
The island’s lighthouse on the northern end has an interesting history. At 50 feet tall, the
Gothic-style lighthouse was commissioned by the city and built in 1872. It is not an official Coast
Guard lighthouse. The lighthouse’s purpose was to “effectually light” the nearby New York City
Insane Asylum for boats navigating the treacherous Hell Gate waters. It was designed by architect
James Renwick, Jr., whose other works include the Smallpox Hospital and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Inmate labor was probably used in the city-run project, and has created a legend that may or may
not be true.
The legendary mysteries are the names of Asylum inmate(s?) John McCarthy and Thomas
Maxey and whether these two names refer to one person, two people or even existent people.
Supposedly, before the lighthouse was built, one John McCarthy (or Thomas Maxey) was
convinced the British would soon invade, and began constructing a four-foot-high clay fort on this
site. Asylum officials let him finish the fort because, during his adrenaline-rushed work, he
reclaimed significant areas of marsh. (They even gave him old Civil War cannons as
encouragement.) When the city decided to build the Lighthouse, officials persuaded McCarthy
either to give up the fort.
Then, supposedly, another Asylum patient was summoned to build the Lighthouse. This inmate
styled himself “Thomas Maxey, Esq., architect, mason, carpenter, civil engineer, philosopher, and
philanthropist.” The lighthouse was built, though adherence to Renwick’s blueprint is questionable.
Despite Thomas Maxey’s supposed labor, John McCarthy’s name was credited on a plaque that
remained at the Lighthouse’s base until its mysterious disappearance in the 1960s:
This work was done by John McCarty who built
the light house from the bottom to the top.
All ye who do pass by may pray for his soul when he dies.
33
The Lighthouse was decommissioned in the 1940s, designated a city landmark in 1975, and
partially restored the following year. In 1998 an anonymous grant of $120,000 funded complete
restoration (including internal lamps).
Abandoned Hospital
Located at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island are the ruins of a Gothic Revival structure that
was originally constructed for the treatment of that "loathsome malady," smallpox, and for many
years was New York City's only such institution.
The city was considering a new hospital in 1850, when smallpox victims were essentially
warehoused in "a pile of poor wooden out houses on the banks of the river." Unlike numerous
other medical institutions built by the city on the island in the 19th century, the Smallpox Hospital
was not planned exclusively for charity cases. Because of the seriousness and the contagious nature
of the disease paying patients were also admitted. Although vaccination against smallpox was
common medical practice by the mid-19th century, the disease continued to plague New York City,
often afflicting recently arrived immigrants, leading to increasingly more stringent quarantine
measures. As late as 1871 smallpox reached epidemic proportions in New York.
The original Smallpox Hospital - without the north and south wings which are later additions -was built in 1854-56 and designed by James Renwick, Jr (who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral
and Grace Church). This hospital accommodated one hundred patients with charity cases in wards
on the lower floors and a series of private rooms on the upper stories for paying patients. In 1875
the Smallpox Hospital was converted to a Home for the Nurses and the Maternity and Charity
Hospital Training School after a new hospital was constructed on North Brothers Island for smallpox
and other contagious diseases. The new hospital helped reduce the danger of the disease
spreading to the island’s population, which by the end of the century numbered some seven
thousand.
The island was renamed Welfare Island in
1921, a reflection of the general nature of its
use. As the 20th century unfolded, many of the
institutional buildings became inadequate and
obsolete, including the City Hospital. Both the
main hospital building and the former Smallpox
Hospital were abandoned. In the late 1960s,
despite its condition, it was included in a list of
buildings on the island considered worthy of
preservation by the Landmarks Preservation
Commission. The New York State Urban
Development Corporation undertook certain
measures to reinforce the walls of the structure,
but the building remains an uninhabitable ruin
with all the romance which any great work of
architecture retains as long as its general
outlines can be discerned, evoking memories of
its past.
Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, circa 1970
34
New York Presbyterian Hospital
New York Presbyterian Hospital, located opposite Roosevelt Island just north of the 59th
Street/Queensboro Bridge, is a university hospital affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools:
Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medical College. It is
composed of two distinct medical centers, Columbia University Medical Center and Weill Cornell
Medical Center on the Upper East Side on 68th street along the East River. A major international
and regional referral center, the hospital is considered among the best in the world and is currently
ranked 7th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
The New York Hospital was founded in 1771 by a Royal Charter granted by King George III of
Great Britain and eventually became associated with Weill Cornell Medical College upon the latter
institution's founding in 1898.
The Medical School was founded as the Cornell University Medical College on April 14, 1898,
with an endowment by Colonel Oliver H. Payne, one of the 100 richest Americans at the time (his
fortune came by forming the American Tobacco trust). The Medical School was established in New
York City because Ithaca, where the main campus was located, was deemed too isolated to offer
adequate clinical training opportunities. The two-year Ithaca course closed in 1938 due to declining
enrollment.
A 1927 endowment of more than $20 million by Payne Whitney (nephew of the colonel, and
inheritor of $63 million from him – always nice to have a rich uncle who smokes heavily!) expanded
the hospital significantly and the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic is named in his honor. Other
prominent donors have included Edward S. Harkness and Anna Harkness, Howard Hughes, William
Randolph Hearst, Harry and Leona Helmsley, Maurice R. Greenberg, and the Baker, Whitney,
Lasdon, and Payson families.
The New York and the Presbyterian Hospitals merged and received a charter as The New York
and Presbyterian Hospital by the State of New York in 1996. The NYPH system includes a variety of
outlying hospitals that had previously been acquired by NYH or Presbyterian; these hospitals
stretch throughout the five boroughs, Westchester County, Long Island and New Jersey. The NYPH
is now the largest private employer in New York City.
35
Hospital for Special Surgery
The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is a hospital in New York City that specializes in
orthopedic surgery and the treatment of rheumatologic conditions.
Founded in 1863 by Dr. James Knight, HSS is the oldest orthopedic hospital in the United States
and is considered one of the top hospitals in the world for joint replacement. The hospital also
performs the most knee replacement surgeries of any hospital in the United States.
Additional areas of expertise at HSS include spine surgery and sports medicine. HSS physicians
with a subspecialty training in the field of spine surgery focus on patients who suffer from
congenital or acute spinal disorders as well as from chronic back pain. The sports medicine services
at HSS treat athletic injuries of the musculoskeletal system with a special focus on shoulder, elbow,
and knee injuries.
In addition, orthopedic surgeons at HSS perform limb lengthening, a procedure that uses the
body’s capacity to create new bone as well as the soft tissues, ligaments, blood vessels, and nerves
that surround and support it. HSS also offers professional medical education programs, including
continuing medical education lecture series, conferences and symposia.
The Hospital for Special Surgery has several affiliations with other nearby hospitals, including
the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and
Rockefeller University. It has one of the most sought after and competitive orthopedics residency
programs in the world, with over 500 applicants competing for eight spots (2009). Today, over 400
of its 500+ graduates hold positions in major orthopedic departments, many serving as department
heads.
The Hospital for Special Surgery – the best place to shop for new knees, hips, elbows – even backbones.
36
59th Street/Queensboro Bridge
Serious proposals for a bridge linking Manhattan to Long Island City were first made as early as
1838, though all attempts to finance such a bridge never came to fruition. Successful plans finally
came about in 1903 under the city's new Bridge Commissioner, one Gustav Lindenthal (remember
him?). Lindenthal collaborated with Leffert Buck and Henry Hornbostel to design a double-decker
double cantilever bridge meeting on Roosevelt Island. Note that the bridge doesn’t have any
suspended spans – the cantilever arms from each span (Manhattan to Roosevelt, and Roosevelt to
Queens) meet in the middle of each span.
Thanks to a number of delays including the collapse of an incomplete span during a
windstorm, labor unrest, and even an attempt to dynamite one span, the bridge wasn’t completed
until 1909. It was originally known as the Blackwell's Island Bridge, until Blackwell’s Island’s name
was eventually changed to Roosevelt Island. The bridge had a trolley running between Manhattan
and Roosevelt Island, where an elevator or stairs took passengers down to the island. In 1930, a
vehicular elevator was installed to transport cars as well as passengers. Service stopped in 1957
once a small bridge was constructed between Queens and Roosevelt Island. The elevator was
eventually demolished in 1970. Six years later, the Tramway was opened as a “temporary” solution
until a subway station could be constructed for access to the island. The subway was finally
completed in 1989, but the decision was made to retain the popular tram.
The bridge has two levels. Originally the top level contained two pedestrian walks and two
elevated railway tracks (which connected a spur of the IRT Second Avenue Elevated Line to the
Queensboro Plaza elevated station) and the lower deck four motor traffic lanes. What is now the
"outer roadway" and pedestrian walk were the site of the trolley lanes between Manhattan and
Roosevelt islands. The railway was removed in the late 1930s and early 1940s along with the 2nd
Avenue Elevated Line. The trolley lanes and mid-bridge station, as well as the stairs, were removed
in the 1950s, and for the next few decades the bridge carried 11 lanes of automobile traffic.
The Manhattan approach to the bridge is supported on a series of groin vaults which now form
the elegant ceiling of the Food Emporium Bridge Market and the restaurant Guastavino's, located
under the bridge in Manhattan. Originally, this open air promenade was known as Bridgemarket
and was part of the designer’s attempt to make the bridge more hospitable in the city.
The Queensboro Bridge is the first entry point into Manhattan in the course of the New York
City Marathon and the last exit point out of Manhattan in the Five Boro Bike Tour.
Aerial view of the bridge from the Manhattan side.
37
United Nations
The headquarters of the United Nations is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of the
borough of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River. Though it is in New York
City, the land occupied by the United Nations Headquarters, and the spaces of buildings that it
rents are under the sole administration of the United Nations. They are technically extraterritorial
through a treaty agreement with the U.S. government. However, in exchange for local police and
fire protection and other services, the U.N. agrees to acknowledge most local, state, and federal
laws – though many of us are familiar with the scofflaw diplomats when it comes to mid-town
parking.
The United Nations Headquarters complex was constructed in stages. The Headquarters
occupies land purchased from William Zeckendorf, Sr. by the Rockefellersfor $8.5 million. Rather
than hold a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the UN decided to
commission a multinational team of leading architects to collaborate on the design. The American
architect Wallace K. Harrison was named as Director of Planning, and a Board of Design Consultants
was composed of architects, planners and engineers nominated by member governments. The
board consisted of N. D. Bassov of the Soviet Union, Gaston Brunfaut (Belgium), Ernest Cormier
(Canada), Le Corbusier (France), Liang Seu-cheng (China), Sven Markelius (Sweden), Oscar
Niemeyer (Brazil), Howard Robertson (United Kingdom), G. A. Soilleux (Australia), and Julio
Vilamajó (Uruguay). Per an agreement with the city, the buildings met some, but not all the local
fire and safety building codes. Take a very good look at the site as we shoot by – this is what
happens when committees build structures!
Many cities vied for the honor of hosting the U.N. Headquarters site, prior to the selection of
New York City. The selection of the East River site came after over a year of protracted study and
consideration of many sites in the United States. A powerful faction among the delegates
advocated returning to the former League of Nations complex in Geneva, Switzerland. Suggestions
came from far and wide including such fanciful suggestions as a ship on the high seas to housing the
entire complex in a single tall building. Amateur architects submitted designs, local governments
offered park areas, but the determined group of New York boosters, including such luminaries as
Grover Whalen, Thomas J. Watson, and Nelson Rockefeller, coordinated efforts with the powerful
Coordinator of Construction, Robert Moses and Mayor William O'Dwyer, to assemble acceptable
interim facilities. Their determined courtship of the U.N. Interim Site committee resulted in the
early meetings taking place at multiple locations throughout the New York area. Sites in San
Francisco (including the Presidio), Marin County, Philadelphia, Boston, Fairfield County, CT,
Westchester County, NY, and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, were among those sites
given serious consideration before Manhattan was finally selected.
Construction on the initial buildings began in 1948, with the cornerstone laid on 24 October
1949, and was completed in 1952.
38
The complex includes a number of major
buildings. While the Secretariat building is most
predominantly featured in depictions of the
headquarters, it also includes the domed General
Assembly building, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library,
as well as the Conference and Visitors Center,
which is situated between the General Assembly
and Secretariat buildings, and can be seen only
from FDR Drive or the East River. Just inside the
perimeter fence of the complex stands a line of
flagpoles where the flags of all 193 UN member
states, plus the U.N. flag, are flown in English
alphabetical order.
The General Assembly building holds the
General Assembly Hall which has a seating capacity
of 1,800. At 165 ft long by 115 ft wide, it is the
largest room in the complex.
The Conference Building faces the East River between the General Assembly Building and the
Secretariat. The Conference Building holds the Security Council Chamber, which was a gift from
Norway and was designed by the Norwegian architect Arnstein Arneberg.
The 39-story Secretariat tower houses offices for the Secretary General, the Under-SecretaryGeneral for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, the Under-Secretary-General for
Political Affairs and Office of Disarmament Affairs, and the Department for General Assembly and
Conference Management (DGACM).
The Dag Hammarskjöld Library was dedicated on 16 November 1961. The building was a gift
from the Ford Foundation and is located next to the Secretariat at the southwest corner of the
headquarters campus. The library holds 400,000 books, 9,800 newspapers and periodical titles,
80,000 maps and the Woodrow Wilson Collection containing 8,600 volumes of League of Nations
documents and 6,500 related books and pamphlets. The library's Economic and Social Affairs
Collection is housed in the DC-2 building.
The complex is also notable for its gardens and outdoor sculptures. Iconic sculptures include
the "Knotted Gun," called Non-Violence, a statue of a Colt Python revolver with its barrel tied in a
knot, which was a gift from the Luxembourg government and "Let Us Beat Swords into
Plowshares", a gift from the Soviet Union. A piece of the Berlin Wall also stands in the U.N. garden.
The headquarters buildings have come to need extensive renovation, including the need to
install sprinklers, fix leaks, and the removal of asbestos.
REMINDER: The Captain of the Port of New York has established a permanent Security Zone next to
the United Nations. We are not authorized within 125 yards of the buildings at the Queensboro Bridge,
nor 175 yards offshore at East 35th Street.
As you pass by Roosevelt Island, you’ll see a small island with a green daymarker – Belmont Island. Keep
this island to port.
39
Belmont Island (U Thant)
Just past Roosevelt Island, you’ll come across a tiny spit of land called Belmont Island –
otherwise known as U Thant Island. The artificial island has a short metal lattice tower holding a
radio beacon and navigational aides (green day beacon), as well as a strange arch covered with
bird’s nests. The island was created as a result of a piano maker looking out for his workers. William
Steinway, son of the founder of Steinway and Sons, had constructed a factory in northern Astoria,
and a workman’s village close by. He built a horse-drawn trolley to shuttle the workers between the
factory and their homes.
A quick side note - Steinway was a very astute businessman who formed an early alliance with
Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach to produce engines as well as pianos. The three were
beginning to consider the production of automobiles in America, but following Steinway’s early
death in 1896, his heirs weren’t convinced that automobiles would ever catch on in America, and
sold all their shares in the fledgling enterprise to General Electric Company in 1898 (don’t ever take
investment advice from a piano maker!) There is still one connection remaining from this alliance,
however. The hand-polished wood inside every Maybach car produced today is made by Steinway’s
factory in Hamburg, Germany. Now, back to the island:
Shortly before his death, Steinway began a project to extend his trolley line underneath the
East River into mid-town to allow his workers more living options. The tunnel eventually became
the IRT Flushing line. The dirt and rubble removed from the tunnels was formed into a small island.
Steinway died before the project was completed, but financier August Belmont, Jr. took up the
project in 1902, finishing it five years later. He named the tunnel after Steinway, and the island
after himself. New Yorkers ignored the island for 70 years, and then, in 1977, a small group of UN
employees leased the island from the State of New York and unofficially re-named the island after
the UN’s third Secretary General, U Thant (the U is a Burmese honorific – like Madonna, Cher, and
Prince, this man had only one name). Thant was a key player in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis
and in ending the civil war in the Congo. The UN employees erected the “oneness arch” that stores
some of Thant’s personal items for posterity.
In August of 2004, local rabble-rouser
Duke Riley rowed out to the island one
drunken night during the Republican
National Convention to declare the
island a sovereign nation. Despite being
a stone’s throw away from the U.N., no
formal recognition was ever made, and
the fledgling republic slipped into
oblivion once dawn and sobriety
returned (along with the Coast Guard).
After passing by Belmont Island, you’ll be passing over the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Hunters Point and
Newtown Creek will be on your port side, and the Midtown Skyport will be slipping by on your Starboard
Side, just off Stuyvescent Town. If, on the off chance you’re feeling a touch seasick, you may want to skip
the passage about Newtown Creek.
40
Queens Midtown Tunnel
The Queens Midtown Tunnel crosses under the East River and connects the Borough of
Queens (at the Long Island Expressway terminus) with the Borough of Manhattan (between the
major crosstown thoroughfares of East 34th Street and East 42nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan
area). The tunnel was opened to traffic on November 15, 1940. The tunnel consists of twin tubes
carrying four traffic lanes, and is 1.6 miles long.
Designed by Ole Singstad, a Norwegian-American civil engineer who designed the ventilation
system for the Holland Tunnel (which set the standard for other automotive tunnels). This was no
small feat - Thomas Edison had contended it was impossible to ventilate a tunnel with the volume
of traffic envisioned for the Holland Tunnel. Previous tunnels had been ventilated longitudinally.
Singstad pioneered a system of ventilating the tunnel transversely.
Working with Yale University and the United States Bureau of Mines, Singstad built a test
tunnel in the bureau's experimental mine at Bruceton, Pennsylvania over 400 feet long — where
cars were lined up with engines running. Volunteer students were supervised as they breathed the
exhaust in order to confirm air flows and tolerable carbon-monoxide levels by simulating different
traffic conditions, including backups. Singstad got the information he needed to calculate how
much air flow was needed - thankfully, no students died during the simulations, though grades
must have suffered that semester.
Singstad designed a tri-level tunnel with the large middle section accommodating vehicles and
two plenums, a lower and upper plenum each respectively supplying fresh air and exhausting
fumes at regular intervals — solving the ventilation problem. On opening day, the average carbon
monoxide content in both tunnels was .69 part per 10,000 parts of air. The highest was 1.60 parts
per 10,000. The permissible standard was 4 parts per 10,000 parts of air. The public and the press
proclaimed air conditions were actually better in the tube than in some streets of New York City.
Singstad also constructed a number of other tunnels across the world, including tunnels in
Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Norway, and Belgium. By 1950, he had designed and overseen
the construction of more underwater tunnels than all the other engineers combined, often
embracing new technologies. For example, during construction of Baltimore Harbor Tunnel from
1955 to 1957, Singstad adopted a cost-saving method for the construction of the tunnel in the river
mud. Previously, hydraulic shields or pressurized caissons had been used — with the constant
danger of divers suffering the bends, and the necessity for constant diligence.
Singstad proposed first digging a large ditch in the river bottom and lowering cable-suspended
pre-fabricated tunnel sections 90 metres (300 ft) in length (weighing 23,000 tons each) into the
ditch from overhead barges. Interior chambers were filled with water to lower the sections, the
sections then aligned, bolted together by divers, the water pumped out, and the tunnels finally
covered with earth. This technique was followed in numerous later tunnel projects by other
engineers, on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, for example.
When planning for the Midtown Tunnel began, a bridge was strongly supported by some
backers, including Robert Moses, who balked at the increased cost of a tunnel and the fact that it
would not be completed in time for the 1939 World's Fair. Manhattan borough president Samuel
Levy in particular was a strong backer of a six-lane bridge plan. Commissioner William Friedman of
the New York City Tunnel Authority rejected the alternative outright. Moses then used his Triboro
Bridge Authority (and pulled some puppet strings from Albany and City Hall) to take over the
Tunnel Authority to form the Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority. One of his first acts was to fire
Singstad, and then change the specifications to meet his imposed deadlines. He might have thought
he had the last laugh, but his new design resulted in a leaky tunnel (never a good idea), and he was
41
forced to fix the leaks by reverting to Singstad's original design - a fact which must have delighted
Singstad, who detested Moses.
During Hurricane Sandy, another advantage of bridges became apparent. The storm surge was
so high that it flooded both the Queens Midtown and Brooklyn Battery tunnels, shutting them
down for a number of weeks until they could be pumped out and restored.
Since 1981, the tunnel has been closed to traffic for a few hours one night each spring to allow
for the annual Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Animal Walk. Several nights before the
circus opens at Madison Square Garden, the elephants march into Manhattan and down 34th
Street to the arena. While this event is a much anticipated annual tradition for some, in recent
years it has attracted organizations protesting the treatment of the circus animals.
42
Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek begins near the intersection of 47th Street and Grand Avenue on the
Brooklyn-Queens border at the intersection of the East Branch and English Kills. It empties into
the East River at 2nd Street and 54th Avenue in Long Island City opposite Bellevue
Hospital in Manhattan at 26th Street. Their waterfronts, and that of its tributaries Dutch
Kills, Whale Creek, Maspeth Creek and English Kills, are heavily industrialized.
Because the surrounded neighborhoods are completely sewerized, the creek has little natural
inflow. Its outgoing flow of 14,000 million US gallons a year consists of combined sewer
overflow, urban runoff, raw domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater. The creek is
largely stagnant; one cause is the 15-foot-thick layer of polluted “black mayonnaise” that has
congealed on the surface.
Before the nineteenth century urbanization and industrialization of the surrounding
neighborhoods, Newtown Creek was a longer and shallower tidal waterway, and wide enough to
contain islands. During the second half of the nineteenth century it became a major industrial
waterway, bounded along most of its length by retaining walls with the shipping channel
maintained by dredging. The Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, mainly a freight line,
runs along the North bank. A liquid natural gas port is under construction on the South bank,
between Kingsland and Greenpoint Avenues, Whale Creek, and the main stream of Newtown
Creek. In part to appease Greenpoint residents angry at the expansion of the nearby sewage
treatment plant, the city of New York built a nature walk alongside Newtown Creek in 2009. (Don’t
ever think that politicians have no sense of irony).
Earlier, residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and the New York State Attorney General's Office
filed lawsuits regarding the Greenpoint Oil Spill that contained more than twice the oil of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill. On September 27, 2010, the United States Environmental Protection
Agency designated Newtown Creek as a Superfund site, preparing the way for environmental
evaluation of the stream.
43
East River Ferry and LI Sights
The East River Ferry company began operations in June of 2011, helped in large part by a
subsidy from the City of New York. The service was originally intended for commuters, but
surprisingly has become very popular with weekend users and tourists. The ferry route begins at
the East 34th Street Ferry Landing, and visits five stops on the Queens/Brooklyn side of the East
River, before darting across to Pier 11/Wall Street.
The ferry service started in June of 2011, and has attracted twice as many riders as its planners
had expected. On sunny weekends, it has been so popular with tourists and wandering residents
that some boats have been too full to take on everybody. The East River service was an experiment
to spur development in revitalized sections of the industrial riverfront in Queens and Brooklyn. The
boats connect Midtown, the financial district near Wall Street, and five spots on the east side of the
river.
According to data supplied by city officials, in the first four months of operations alone, nearly
350,000 people had paid to ride the ferries, far more than the 134,000 they had projected. In its
first year of operations, the ferry carried more than 1 million passengers, more than double the
original estimate of 409,000 riders.
The five stops in Queens and Brooklyn include Hunters Point/Long Island City, Greenpoint,
North Williamsburg, Schaefer Landing/South Williamsburg, and DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan
Bridge Overpass). While we won’t be using the ferry service this trip (after all, we do have our own
boats!), at $12 for an all-day pass, it should be put on one’s summer “Bucket List” for adults and
kids alike.
Long Island City
LIC is a sprawling neighborhood along Queens’ western edge that can be hard to define. But
it’s the mix of museums, restaurants and outdoor spaces that make Long Island City so interesting.
The heart of the area is Hunters Point, home to 5 Pointz, an outdoor art space considered to be the
graffiti Mecca (slated to be torn down this September).
Greenpoint
Due to its large Polish population, visiting Greenpoint can be like taking a trip to the old world.
You’ll find lots of homey restaurants serving pierogies, kielbasa and stuffed cabbage interspersed
with boutiques and artisanal food outposts, making for an eclectic mix that’s sure to please. The
local favorite is Karczma, for its inexpensive and delicious Polish food. Decorated like a traditional
44
farmhouse with waitresses dressed in traditional garb, Karczma will make you feel like you traveled
back in time to the Old Country. Their Thursday happy hour serves Polish beer for $3.50 a pint.
North Williamsburg
Famous as a hipster haven, the neighborhood has become quite family-friendly over the past
few years as its residents have welcomed children of their own. In addition to the dive bars, rock
clubs and art galleries, there are now many attractions for families that reflect the area’s trendy
vibe, with laid-back restaurants, live entertainment and the 35-acre McCarren Park featuring
playgrounds, sports fields and an outdoor pool. Although much of the neighborhood’s waterfront is
currently being redeveloped, East River Park offers exceptional views of the Manhattan skyline and
the Williamsburg Bridge. The recently completed Bushwick Inlet Park forms the centerpiece of the
Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront. The park site encompasses almost 30 acres of land and
surrounds Bushwick Inlet, a narrow, protected remnant of Bushwick Creek. The park is envisioned
as a cultural destination and landmark for New York City. A defining feature of this park is the
juxtaposition of naturalistic and urban landscapes and the incorporation of both active and passive
recreation as well as restored natural areas.
South Williamsburg/Schaefer Landing
Although South Williamsburg is sometimes lumped in with its northern neighbor, it’s really a
separate area with its own vibe. Home to a diverse community of Hispanics, Hasidim and edgier
hipsters, South Williamsburg is less crowded and less gentrified than North Williamsburg and
attracts fewer tourists. While there aren’t a ton of things to do here yet, the area feels authentically
New York and is worth exploring. The derelict Domino Sugar refinery in Williamsburg was built in
1856, and by 1870 it processed more than half of the sugar used in the United States. A fire in 1882
caused the plant to be completely rebuilt in brick and stone. These buildings remain, albeit with
alterations made over the years. The refinery stopped operating in 2004. Three of the buildings
were given landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2007.
45
DUMBO
This former industrial neighborhood is now a cultural hot spot filled with lots of family
attractions, including the stunning waterfront Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is home to Jane’s
Carousel, treat spots like Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and Dewey’s Candy Store, children’s
boutiques, family-friendly restaurants, and lots of opportunities for kids to enjoy movies, music and
art, or get creative themselves.
A word of caution: there is a very good chance we will see one of these blue-hulled ferries with a white
superstructure. Keep well clear of this ferry, as they are limited in their ability to stop and maneuver.
While we are out for pleasure, they are out earning a living. Additional ferries to watch out for include
the Staten Island ferry, the Sandy Hook/Belford ferry, the NYC Water Taxi, the Circle Line, and the (free)
seasonal Governors Island ferry, which runs from Wall Street/Pier 11 to Governors Island.
The Liberty ferry will not be running when we make this passage.
46
East 34th Street Heliport
East 34th Street Heliport is on the Manhattan side of the East River, adjacent to the FDR Drive
viaduct. Also known as the Atlantic Metroport at East 34th Street, it is a public heliport owned by
New York City and run by the Economic Development Corporation.
The East 34th Street Heliport opened in 1972, providing charter, commuter, and sightseeing
flights, and served as a replacement for the heliport atop the Pan Am Building1.
After several residential high rises were developed in the neighborhood in the 1980s, the city
was pressured into reducing helicopter traffic in the area. Sightseeing flights were banned from the
heliport in 1997. In 1998, operations were further restricted by limiting flights from 8 am to 8 pm
on weekdays and from 10 am to 6 pm on weekends. Weekend flights were banned altogether later
in the year.
1
The heliport atop the Pan Am building allowed travelers to check in for their flights in mid-town and
disembark planeside at LGA and JFK minutes later, courtesy of New York Airways (the first airline to hire an
African American as an airline pilot). The service was discontinued in 1968, and briefly resumed in 1977. On
th
May 16 , 1977, the landing gear failed on a Sikorsky helicopter while it was taking on passengers atop the
Pan Am Building. The aircraft rolled onto its side, and spinning rotor blades killed four passengers waiting to
board and injured a fifth. Parts of a broken blade fell into the streets below, killing one pedestrian and
injuring another. The accident precipitated the permanent closure of the heliport, and, to the sorrow of
Jetson fans everywhere, banned all future rooftop heliports.
47
Kips Bay
Kips Bay is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Because there are no
official boundaries for New York City neighborhoods, the limits of Kip's Bay are somewhat vague,
but it is often considered to be the area between East 23rd Street and East 34th Street extending
from Lexington Avenue to the East River. Some definitions put its western boundary significantly
farther east, at Second Avenue, and recently the northern boundary has been extended to 38th
Street rather than 34th Street.
Kips Bay was an inlet of the East River running from what is now 32nd Street to 37th Street.
The bay extended into Manhattan island to just west of what is now First Avenue and had two
streams that ran from it. The bay was named after New Netherland Dutch settler Jacobus
Hendrickson Kip (1631-1690), whose farm ran north of present day 30th Street along the East River.
The bay later became reclaimed land, yet "Kips Bay" remains the name of the area. Kip built a large
brick and stone house, near the modern intersection of Second Avenue and East 35th Street. The
house stood from 1655 to 1851, expanding more than once to accommodate a growing family.
When it was demolished, it was the last farmhouse from New Amsterdam remaining in the city. Its
orchard was famous, and, when George Washington was presented with a French Rose from the
farm during his first administration, it was claimed to have been grown in the first garden in the
states.
Kips Bay was the site of the Landing at Kip's Bay (September 15, 1776), an episode of the
American Revolutionary War and part of the New York and New Jersey campaign. About 4,000
British Army and Hessian troops under General William Howe landed at Kips Bay on September 15,
1776, near what is now the foot of East 33rd Street. Supported by advance fire from British naval
forces, Howe's men defeated about 500 American militiamen commanded by Colonel William
Douglas, and very nearly cut off the escape route of some Continental Army forces looking to
retreat to Harlem Heights. The flight was so rapid that George Washington, attempting to rally his
troops, was left dangerously exposed to British lines.
General Howe, who had wanted to capture New York quickly and with minimal bloodshed,
considered the invasion a complete success. Not wanting to continue battling with the Americans
that day, Howe stopped his troops short of Harlem.
Washington was extremely
angry with his troops' conduct,
calling their actions "shameful" and
"scandalous". The Connecticut
militia, who already had a poor
reputation, were labeled cowards
and held to blame for the rout.
However, others were more
circumspect, pointing out that if the
Connecticut men would have
stayed to defend York Island under
the withering cannon fire and in the
face of overwhelming force, they
would have been annihilated.
The American forces reached Harlem Heights later that night, and fought – and beat – the
British the very next day, in the Battle of Harlem Heights.
48
Bellevue Hospital
Bellevue Hospital Center, most often referred to as "Bellevue", was founded on March 31,
1736 and is the oldest public hospital in the United States. Located on First Avenue in the Kips Bay
neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, Bellevue is famous from many literary, film and
television references, and as the training ground for many of America's leaders in medicine. The
literary, film, and television references lead many to believe that it is exclusively a nuthouse, but
while it may be a center for psychiatric care, it also has a history of being first in many practices,
being the site of many medical milestones, most of which are synonymous with hospital practice
today: the first ambulance service, the first maternity ward, the first (Nobel Prize-winning) cardiac
catheterization/cardiopulmonary laboratory, the first hospital to promote sanitation (in 1866!), the
first nursing school, the first emergency room, the first pacemaker, the first heart failure clinic, and
the city’s first morgue (definitely a full service hospital!)
Despite all these accomplishments, the hospital’s commitment to serve all patients of all
backgrounds irrespective of their ability to pay means that it handles almost 800,000 patients
annually. The open door policy does attract the “medically underserved“,including many drug
addicts, alcoholics, and homeless. The building that once served as the hospital’s psychiatric facility
was renovated into a men’s homeless shelter in 1998. It is this building that you see behind The
Water Club, and just north of the tall skinny brown brick apartment buildings outside of the FDR
Drive (aptly named Waterside Plaza).
The hospital has been affiliated with the New York University School of Medicine since 1968.
On the left, the original Bellevue Psychiatric
Hospital building, now a men's homeless shelter. On
the right, the “Cube”, built in 1964, holds 2,000
beds, and is designed to minimize horizontal travel
time of staff.
49
East River Generating Station
You might look at the power plant with four enormous smokestacks on Manhattan’s lower
east side at 14th Street and think it is a throwback to an earlier age, when high-sulphur coal from
Pennsylvania was dumped into enormous fireboxes to generate the steam needed to spin turbines
used to generate electricity for a large chunk of Manhattan. That may have been the case a century
ago, but Consolidated Edison has come a long way since its founding. While the plant does
generate electricity, it now uses oil and natural gas, and through the practice of co-generation, it
takes the “spent” steam produced by steam generating stations and carries it under the streets of
Manhattan to heat, cool, or supply power to high rise buildings and businesses. Some New York
businesses and facilities also use the steam for cleaning, climate control and disinfection.
Consolidated Edison operates the largest commercial steam system in the United States. The
organization within Con Edison that is responsible for the system's operation is known as Steam
Operations, serving more than 100,000 commercial and residential establishments in Manhattan
from Battery Park to 96th Street uptown on the West side and 89th Street on the East side of
Manhattan. Roughly 13 megatons of steam flows through the system every year.
Cogeneration and Heat Recovery Steam Generation significantly increases the efficiency of fuel
usage and thereby reduces the emission of pollutants and the city's carbon footprint. Con Edison is
also actively promoting the use of steam for cooling in the summer months, something that can be
accomplished with the installation of absorption chillers. Such tri-generation systems result in
additional energy and pollution savings, while reducing peak electrical loads.
The city’s underground steam system – 105 miles of mains and service pipes - bolsters New
York City’s status as one the greenest cities in the country, and deserves a growing role in the city’s
energy market. The East River plant is a very efficient system, unlike a typical plant that dumps all
50
its heat into a nearby river. According to energy experts, it’s probably one of the more efficient
plants in the country.
But before you get that warm gushy feeling that might make your inner tree-hugger go kiss a
Con-Ed meter-checker, realize that at least 12 steam pipe explosions have occurred in New York
City since 1987. The most recent incident was the 2007 New York City steam explosion, right near
Grand Central, which killed one person. Another major incident occurred on June 28, 1996, at the
plant on East 75th Street. Though the system has been modernized, much of its design dates back
to its arrival in the city 130 years ago.
51
Williamsburg Bridge
Construction on the Williamsburg Bridge, the second to cross this river, began in 1896,
with Leffert L. Buck as chief engineer, Henry Hornbostel as architect and Holton D. Robinson as
assistant engineer, and the bridge opened on December 19, 1903 at a cost of $24,200,000. At the
time it was constructed, the Williamsburg Bridge set the record for thelongest suspension bridge
span on Earth. The record fell in 1924, when the Bear Mountain Bridge was completed.
It is an unconventional structure, as suspension bridges go; though the main span hangs from
cables in the usual manner, the side spans leading to the approaches are supported by trusswork,
drawing no support from the cables above. The main span of the bridge is 1,600 feet (490 m) long.
The entire bridge is 7,308 feet (2,227 m) long between cable anchor terminals, and the deck is 118
feet (36 m) wide. The height at the center of the bridge is 135 feet (41 m) and each tower is 335
feet (102 m); these measurements taken from the river's surface at high water mark.
This bridge and the Manhattan Bridge are the only suspension bridges in New York City that
still carry both automobile and rail traffic. In addition to this two-track rail line (BMT Nassau Street
Line and BMT Jamaica Line), there were once two sets of trolley tracks. The Brooklyn landing is
between Grand Street and Broadway, which both had ferries at the time. The five ferry routes that
operated from these landings withered and went out of business by 1908.
As you drive out of Brooklyn on the Williamsburg Bridge, you’ll see a traffic sign reading
“Leaving Brooklyn, Oy Vey!”, courtesy of Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President. He wanted
motorists know the community was sad to see them go. Markowitz has a number of other amusing
signs on Brooklyn’s borders, including “Welcome to Brooklyn, Believe the Hype!”, “Welcome to
Brooklyn, Not Just a Borough, An Experience”, and “Leaving Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit”.
The bridge has been under reconstruction since the 1980s, largely to repair damage caused by
decades of deferred maintenance. It was completely shut down to motor vehicle traffic and subway
trains on April 12, 1988 after inspectors discovered severe corrosion in a floor beam. The cast iron
stairway on the Manhattan side, and the steep ramp from Driggs Avenue on the Williamsburg side
to the footwalks, were replaced to allow handicapped access in the 1990s. Since the new bike path
opened, the bridge has become the most heavily bicycled span in North America.
A celebration was held on June 22, 2003, to mark the 100th anniversary of the bridge and the
area surrounding Continental Army Plaza was filled with musical performers, exhibits on the history
of the bridge, and street vendors. Dignitaries marched across the bridge carrying the 45-star
American flag used in a
game of capture the
flag played by workers
after the placement of the
final cable in June 1902. A
truck-sized birthday cake
was specially made for the
event by Domino Sugar,
which had a factory on the
East River waterfront near
the bridge.
Once you pass under the Williamsburg Bridge, you’ll be approaching a working Fire Station on the port
side, as well as the old Brooklyn Navy Yard. Off your starboard side will be Corlears Hook Park.
52
Wallabout Bay/Brooklyn Navy Yard
Wallabout Bay
Wallabout Bay is small body of water in Upper New York Bay along the northwest shore of
the New York City borough of Brooklyn, between the present Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges,
opposite Corlear's Hook on Manhattan to the west, across the East River. Wallabout Bay now abuts
the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The name comes from the Dutch "Waal bocht", which means
"Walloons' Bay", named for Belgian immigrants.
The Wallabout became the first spot on Long Island settled by Europeans when several
families of French-speaking Walloons opted to purchase land there in the early 1630s, having
arrived in New Netherland in the previous decade from Holland. Settlement of the area began in
the mid-1630s when Joris Jansen Rapelje exchanged trade goods with the Canarsee Indians for
some 335 acres of land at Wallabout Bay, but Rapelje, like other early Wallabout settlers, waited at
least a decade before relocating full-time to the area, until conflicts with the tribes had been
resolved.
Most historical accounts put Rapelje's house as the first house built at Wallabout Bay. His
daughter Sarah was the first child born of European parentage in New Netherland, and Rapelje
later served as a Brooklyn magistrate as well as a member of the Council of Twelve Men. Rapelje's
son-in-law Hans Hansen Bergen owned a large tract adjoining Rapelje's. Nearby were tobacco
plantations belonging to Jan and Peter Montfort, Peter Caesar Alberto, and other farmers.
Starting in 1637, the Wallabout served as the landing site of the first ferry across the East River
from lower Manhattan. Cornelis Dircksen, the lone ferryman, farmed plots on both sides—near to
where the Brooklyn Bridge now spans—to best employ his time on either bank of the river.
A feudal system of land tenure was suspended in 1638, and the small settlement became
a colony of freeholders: after a ten-year period of paying the Dutch East India Company a tenth of
their yield, colonists would own their farmland. ("Bruijk" means "to use" and "leen" means "loan" in
Dutch.) The humble "Bruykleen Colonie" expanded out from the Wallabout to become the city of
Brooklyn. Even then, it seems, the working class ruled Brooklyn!
The area was the site where the infamous British prison ships moored during the American
Revolutionary War (most infamous of which was the HMS Jersey), from about 1776-1783. Over
10,000 soldiers and sailors died due to deliberate neglect on these rotting hulks, more American
deaths than from every battle of the war combined. Though their corpses were buried on the
eroding shore in shallow graves, or often simply thrown overboard, local women collected remains
when they became exposed or washed onshore and many more were discovered with the
development of the area and expansion of piers. The nearby Prison Ship Martyrs'
Monument in Fort Greene Park houses remains of the prisoners and overlooks the site of their
torment and death.
53
Fireboat Station in Wallabout Bay
Brooklyn Navy Yard
Manhattan shipbuilder John Jackson began to develop Wallabout Bay following the
Revolutionary War. Taking advantage of the existing dock on the property, Jackson built a small
shipyard and about ten houses for workmen. During the 1790s, the shipyard built the frigate John
Adams, then one of the largest ships afloat, for the Navy. In 1801 Jackson sold the 42-acre shipyard
to the United States government for use as a navy yard. Jackson continued to purchase land in
Wallabout and began building houses and selling lots in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Navy Yard for
residential and industrial purposes. He also established a ferry between Little Street in Brooklyn
and Walnut Street (now Jackson Street) in Manhattan.
Within the Navy Yard, the United States government constructed the Commandant’s Quarters
and several brick storehouses and offices. Federal authorities purchased the old docks and 40 acres
of land for forty thousand dollars in 1801, and the property became an active U.S. Navy shipyard
five years later, in 1806. The offices, store-houses and barracks were constructed of handmade
bricks, and the yard's oldest structure, the 1807 federal style commandant's house, was designed
by Charles Bulfinch, architect of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It is now a designated
New York City Landmark.
The yard has seen many famous naval vessels christened, among them the first iron-clad
Monitor, the Niagara (laid the first trans-Atlantic cable), the ill-fated Maine (remember?), the
Connecticut, flagship of the Great White Fleet, the Arizona (with the keel laid by FDR in 1914, who
would later keelhaul the Japanese for the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor which sunk the Arizona), the
much-decorated North Carolina, the “Big Mo” Missouri (site of the Japanese surrender), a number
of aircraft carriers, and thousands of smaller vessels – one of particular note, PT-109.
At first the yard produced gun boats for ventures against the Barbary and Caribbean pirates. In
1815, the yard launched the Fulton, the first steam-powered ocean-going vessel. Outside the yard,
54
new houses went up to house the brass founders, caulkers, joiners, riggers, and sailmakers involved
in ship building. Taverns, game rooms and a hotel also opened near the yard. In 1824 the Federal
government purchased an additional thirty-five acres on Wallabout Bay for a Naval Hospital.
Construction began on the main hospital building in 1830 and was completed by 1838.
Many local residents were involved in ship building and worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In
1904, the Navy Yard became one of the Navy’s two battleship yards (the other was Philadelphia),
tasked with producing a new generation of battleships. During World War I the Navy Yard was busy
producing ships - the 1920 census reveals that many residents in this district were employed at the
yard in occupations such as machinist, shipfitter, riveter, or electrician.
Due to a Harding-era disarmament treaty, no new ships were built at the yard between 1919
and 1929, but the yard continued to house the navy’s chemical, electrical, and radio laboratories
and its merchant marine training center. Portions of the yard were also used for the manufacture of
assorted goods. A few residents still earned their livings at the Navy Yard. Ethnically the
neighborhood was predominantly Irish and Italian with a mix of Germans, Scandinavians, and
Greeks. During the 1930s the percentage of Italians greatly increased.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard reached its peak during World War II. Ththe pedestrian walkways on
the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges spanning the East River offered a good overhead view of
the navy yard, and were therefore encased in order to prevent espionage. By the end of the war,
BNY was the largest shipyard in the world, crucial to the American war effort and employing over
75,000 workers with a monthly payroll of between $15 million and $16 million. The residents of the
neighborhood prospered during the war and in the postwar boom years, but as modern ships
became too big to sail under the Brooklyn Bridge and the Navy Yard’s facilities became old and
obsolete, the Johnson administration slated the Navy Yard for closure in 1966. By that time many of
area factories that had been a source of employment to neighborhood residents were also closing.
The construction of the elevated Brooklyn Queens Expressway (completed 1964) necessitated
the demolition of several buildings immediately to the north of this historic district and brought
traffic and pollution. The automobile and cheap mortgages made moving to the suburbs easy.
Unable to find comparable jobs in the area, hard-pressed owners stopped making mortgage
payments and simply moved out. Speculators began buying properties on the block giving houses
quick renovations to qualify for FHA mortgages. By the early 1970s many houses had become
vacant and rundown. In the later 1970s, new owners began to move in and over time a number of
houses were restored. The majority of the buildings within the Wallabout Historic District on the
whole retain an exceptional level of integrity. This architecturally significant collection of early
wood and masonry houses with its many historical associations, particularly its connections to the
Navy Yard and New York’s maritime industries, represents an important part of the history of
Brooklyn and the City of New York.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard, seen from mid-stream, East River.
55
Corlears Hook Park
This park takes its name from the geographic region of southeastern Manhattan that once had
the shape of a hook. The Corlear family, 17th century Dutch landowners, controlled much of the
property in this curving landmass.
Today this parkland, located at the intersection of Jackson and Cherry Streets along the East
River Drive, affords stunning views of the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges and the Brooklyn
Navy Yard. Originally a heavy marshland used by Lenape Native Americans to land their canoes,
Dutch settlers of the mid-1600s swiftly took advantage of this area’s graded coastal incline for the
loading and unloading of incoming transport vessels.
During the American Revolutionary War Battle of Brooklyn, the British landing and advance
upon General George Washington’s fleeing Colonial Army was impeded by a series of hastily
erected earthen barricades on the site. In 1814 the Corlear neighborhood, as it was briefly called
before gradually melding into the Lower East Side, underwent renovations as part of a relief project
for thousands of Irish immigrants. By leveling the site’s hills for use in landfill along the waterfront,
workers made possible the busy docks that soon encouraged industrial and residential growth in
the area.
By the 1830s it became the city’s most notorious red-light district, attracting a fair share of
rough characters, male and female. But with the rising tide of immigration, rapid local
industrialization, and overburdened tenements, by the 1880s, the need for a nearby park space
increased, driven in large part by Jacob Riis and his pioneering use of flash photography. How the
Other Half Lives exposed the squalor, crime, and extreme poverty that most immigrants endured
while seeking to make their dreams come true, with images that shocked the social conscience of
New Yorkers, and led to a decade of improvements in the Lower East Side - New York's worst
tenements were torn down, sweatshops eradicated, and the city's schools reformed. Sewers were
built, garbage collection enforced, and indoor plumbing made a requirement, thanks to public
reaction to his book.
Though the City purchased the land for Corlears Hook Park in 1893, the park was not
completed until 1905. Through the late 1930s, the park’s broad, tree-lined promenade held a
comfort station, playground, and baseball diamond, but when the City began developing the East
River’s shoreline in tandem with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration,
Corlears Hook Park was reduced in size. Reacting to the construction of FDR Drive in the late 1930s,
Parks Commissioner Robert Moses began to draw up and execute plans to take advantage of the
new landfill over which the traffic thoroughfare wound.
Over the next few years, Moses’s added several properties along the eastern coastline of
Manhattan, including East River Park, and began to revitalize the Lower East Side. Though Corlears
Hook Park initially lost a large portion of land, the addition of an adjoining 57 acre-long East River
Park in the 1940s granted the East Side neighborhoods an even larger area in which to walk and
play. Connected by several footbridges and winding paths, the adjoining parks now offer softball
fields, areas for roller skating and public performances as well as riverfront walkways to the Lower
East Side and the East Village.
That small two-story brick building that looks like an old Fire House was once… a Fire House. It
now houses the Lower East Side Ecology Center.
56
Manhattan Bridge
The Manhattan Bridge was built in the hopes of relieving the enormous traffic over the
Brooklyn Bridge. Because of all the troubles it faced over the years, it eventually became known as
the Rodney Dangerfield of all the bridges spanning the East River – it gets no respect. Part of the
lack of respect is that it was the last of the three great suspension bridges, being completed in 1909
(the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, and the Williamsburg Bridge was opened in 1903).
Part of it was the enormous upkeep (built for $31 million in 1909, it has required well over a billion
dollars since the 80’s to keep it open). Part of it was poor design (Bridge Commissioner Lindenthal
had been replaced with a new commissioner, who took some parts of Lindenthal’s design and
morphed it into a new structure).
Lindenthal’s original design called for “eye-bar” chain (flat 10 foot lengths of nickel-steel joined
at their ends by steel pins, much like a bicycle chain) rather than steel cable, held aloft by two thinprofile steel towers. A new mayor who came into office in 1904 appointed a new bridge
commissioner, who, in turn, opted for another design, this one by Leon Moisieff (of “Galloping
Gertie”-Tacoma Narrows Bridge fame). The new plan, also a suspension bridge, retained
Lindenthal’s thin-profile towers, but rejected the eye-bar chain in favor of steel wire.
Most crucial, Moisieff’s overall design relied on an experimental new bridge engineering
principle called deflection theory. This theory held that the inherent structure of suspension
bridges makes them stronger than was originally supposed; consequently, they did not require
massive stiffening trusses like those used on the Williamsburg Bridge. This bridge has a total of
seven vehicle lanes, four rail lanes, and 2 pedestrian lanes – quite a heavy load to carry on a new
theory! Deflection theory would not be fully perfected for decades, and as a result, the Manhattan
Bridge was, essentially, underbuilt. (If you’re nervous about passing under any bridge, this is the
one you should be most nervous about!)
Compounding the problem, Moissieff placed the rail lines on the outer edges of the roadway.
The heavy moving loads of the trains put a twisting strain on the lightly reinforced deck, resulting in
unending maintenance headaches. Prior to corrective reconstruction, the bridge would undulate up
to six feet when two subway trains would enter the bridge on opposite ends – no doubt a nervewracking experience for any pedestrians! Reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge was begun in the
1980s that has only recently ended, in 2007.
Despite all the design flaws, many feel the bridge
is beautiful in its own right. It originally featured two of
the most impressive entranceways of any New York
City bridge. A stone archway styled after the Porte St.
Denis in Paris and designed by of Carrere and Hastings
(the architectural firm that designed the New York
Public Library building) still serves as the Manhattanside portal. The somewhat less grand Brooklyn
approach, which included two statues by Daniel
Chester French – allegorical figures of Brooklyn and
Manhattan – was dismantled in the 1960s to facilitate
traffic movement. The statues were moved to the
Brooklyn Museum.
57
The Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is the Granddaddy of all the suspension bridges in the United States, if not
the world. Completed just over 130 years ago in May of 1883, it connects the isle of Manhattan
with Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet it was the longest
suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension
bridge.
Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, it was
dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it
has become an icon of New York City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and
a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.
The Brooklyn Bridge was initially designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who
had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware
Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, Waco Suspension Bridge in Waco, Texas, and the John A.
Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio.
While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained an injury to his foot when
a ferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanitus
infection (lockjaw) which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he
had placed his 32-year-old son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.
Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness
shortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870. This condition, first called "caisson
disease" by the project physician Andrew Smith, afflicted many of the workers working within the
caissons. After Roebling's debilitating condition left him unable to physically supervise the
construction firsthand, his wife Emily Warren Roebling stepped in and provided the critical written
link between her husband and the engineers on site. Under her husband's guidance, Emily studied
higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge
specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction. She spent the next 11 years assisting
Washington Roebling, helping to supervise the bridge's construction.
When iron probes underneath the caisson found the bedrock to be even deeper than
expected, Roebling halted construction due to the increased risk of decompression sickness. He
later deemed the aggregate overlying the bedrock 30 feet below it to be firm enough to support
the tower base, and construction continued. Harbor pilot Joseph Henderson was called upon as an
expert seaman to determine the height of the water span of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. The granite blocks were
quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, under a contract with the Bodwell Granite
Company, and delivered from Maine to New York by schooner.
The opening ceremony was attended by several thousand people and many ships were
present in the East Bay for the occasion. President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin
Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low
when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling at the
latter's home, after the ceremony. Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and in fact rarely
visited the site again), but held a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge
opening. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks
display.
58
The Brooklyn Bridge
View from the pedestrian walkway. The bridge's cable arrangement forms a distinct weblike pattern.
59
South Street Seaport
The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan,
located where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District. It features
some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan, and includes the largest concentration of
restored early 19th-century commercial buildings in the city. At the entrance to the Seaport is the
Titanic Memorial lighthouse.
The Titanic Memorial is a 60-foot-tall (18 m) lighthouse built, due in part to the instigation of
the unsinkable Molly Brown, to remember the people who died on the RMS Titanic on April 15,
1912. Its design incorporates the use of a time ball, an obsolete time signaling device. It consists of
a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is raised halfway about 5 minutes prior to noon to alert
ships, then raised fully 2 minutes prior to noon. Precisely at noon, the ball is dropped, enabling
navigators to verify their marine chronometers from their ships offshore. Accurate timekeeping is
one means by which longitude was be determined at sea. With the commencement of radio time
signals (in Britain from 1924), time-balls gradually became obsolete and many were demolished in
the 1920s.
The lighthouse was originally erected in 1913. It stood above the East River on the roof of the
old Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey at the corner of South Street and
Coenties Slip. From 1913 to 1967 the time ball operated to signal the ships in the harbor. This time
ball mechanism was activated by a telegraphic signal, from the Naval Observatory in Washington
D.C.
In July 1968 the Seamen's Church Institute moved to its present quarters at 15 State Street.
That year, the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse was donated by the Kaiser-Nelson Steel & Salvage
Corporation to the South Street Seaport Museum. It was erected at the entrance to the museum
complex, on the corner of Fulton and Pearl streets, in May 1976.
60
South Street Seaport Museum was founded in 1967 to be an educational historic site, with
shops mostly operating as reproductions of working environments found during the Seaport's
heyday, 1820 to 1860. The museum sits in a 12 square-block historic district that is the site of the
original port of New York City. It houses exhibition galleries, a working 19th-century print shop, an
archeology museum, a maritime library, a craft center, a marine life conservation lab, and the
largest privately owned fleet of historic ships in the country. Included in this fleet are:
Peking, a 1911, four-masted barque
that routinely rounded Cape Horn in
the 20’s, sailing in the traditional
way with few labor-saving devices or
safety features.
Wavertree, an 1885, fully rigged
wrought iron cargo ship which
was de-masted off Cape Horn in
1910. It barely made it to the
Falklands, where it was
converted to a floating
warehouse.
Ambrose, a 1908 lightship, the last to
be steam-powered. She was retired
from the Coast Guard in 1964, and
deeded to the Seaport in 1968.
61
W.O. Decker, a 1930 tugboat.
Originally steam powered, she
now uses a small diesel, is still
used for waterfront chores at
South Street, and is available for
charters.
Pioneer, an 1885 schooner still used
for sailing excursions in New York
Harbor.
Lettie G. Howard, an 1893 gaffrigged schooner that travels up
and down the Northeast
seaboard.
Almost all buildings and the entire Seaport neighborhood are meant to transport the visitor
back in time to New York's mid-19th century, to demonstrate what life in the commercial maritime
trade was like. A section of nearby Fulton Street, Schermerhorn Row, is preserved as cobblestone and
lined with shops, bars, and restaurants.
62
Part of Schermerhorn Row, early 19th-century mercantile buildings
The Seaport was heavily damaged in 2012 in Hurricane Sandy as tidal floods (seven feet deep
in places) inundated much of the Seaport. Many of the businesses closed and the remaining
businesses suffered from a severe drop in business after it. The South Street Seaport Museum reopened in December 2012. The Howard Hughes Corporation announced they will tear down the
Seaport's most prominent shopping area -- Pier 17 -- starting in the Fall of 2013. They will replace it
with a new structure by 2015.
Pier 17
63
Staten Island Ferry Terminal
Ferry service to downtown Manhattan from the surrounding areas was provided as early as
the 1700s by individuals (and later private companies) with their own boats, but a ferry accident
June 14, 1901, involving two ferries from different companies, was a major factor in the decision for
the city to take control of ferries as part of the public transportation system.
The original Staten Island Ferry Terminal, called the "Whitehall Street Ferry Terminal," served
Brooklyn, Governors Island, Staten Island, and Weehawken. The older Whitehall Terminal was
purely functional, described as a "squat, washed-out green hulk in which function vanquished
form,". As a result of a major fire in 1991, the terminal was gutted, giving the city the chance to
replace it with a building in which it could take pride. Thus began a fourteen-year period of design
plan submissions, rejections, and changes, delayed construction again and again—in addition to the
basic construction challenges inherent in the rebuilding of the terminal in a way which would cause
little or no disruption to ferry service on the water or subway service underneath the construction
site.
In 1992, the New York City Economic Development Corporation held an international
competition to design a replacement facility, and selected a new design for the terminal produced
by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. The winning design, featuring a barrel vaulted waiting
room that was higher than that at Grand Central Station, included what would have been the
largest clock in the world, along with a subsequent design featuring a large, electronic facade facing
the harbor. Unfortunately for Venturi-Brown, the plans were deemed by Staten Island authorities
as architecturally unacceptable.
The design ultimately accepted was put forth by Ronald Evitts and Fred Schwartz. It called for a
19,000-square-foot structure to replace the existing building, with a 90-foot high entry hall, and a
50-percent larger waiting room with views of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty and lower
Manhattan. Ultimately, a rooftop waterfront Viewing Deck crowned the building, and included a
state-of-the-art photovoltaic array on its canopy and connections on either end to the waterfront
esplanade on the east and west sides of Manhattan.
The new terminal accommodates over 100,000 tourists and commuters on a daily basis, and is
open 24 hours a day. The design established the terminal as a major integrated transportation hub,
connecting it with a new South Ferry subway station with access to four subway lines, three bus
lines, and taxis. Additionally, through the Terminal and Minuit Plaza, access to bicycle lanes and
even other water transport options are also available.
A "gateway to the city," set against the backdrop of Manhattan's greatest buildings on one
side and the river on the other, the design was created to imbue the terminal with a strong sense of
civic presence. In addition to the views from within the terminal, rooftop viewing is also part of the
new construction, including benches.
A 2005 Newsday writer called the hub so beautiful that it has become a "destination": with
"the panorama of lower Manhattan from the top of the escalators, the vast windows framing the
Statue of Liberty, the upstairs deck with views of the harbor -- these are reasons to take shelter
here for a little longer than the ferry schedule makes strictly necessary."
Following the 9/11 attacks, the ferry no longer takes automobiles aboard for the 25 minute
ride, but is the cheapest mass transit available for pedestrians, costing exactly zero dollars and zero
cents in both directions (take note, Metro North!)
64
The old ferry terminal, circa 1905.
The new ferry terminal, 103 years later.
65
The Battery
The southern shoreline of Manhattan Island had long been known as the Battery, and was a
popular promenade since at least the 17th century. At the time, it served as protection to the town.
The Battery was the center of Evacuation Day celebrations commemorating the departure of the
last British troops in the United States after the American Revolutionary War.
The relatively modern park was created by landfill during the 19th century, resulting in a
landscaped open space at the foot of the heavily developed downtown. Skyscrapers now occupy
most of the original land, stopping abruptly where the park now begins. On State Street, the former
harbor front and the northern boundary of the park, a single Federal mansion survives. Until the
1820s, the city's stylish residential district lay north of this house, between Broadway and the
"North River" (now known as the Hudson River).
Within the park lies Castle Clinton, an American fort built on a small artificial off-shore island
immediately prior to the War of 1812 and named for Mayor DeWitt Clinton. When the land of
Battery Park was created, it encircled and incorporated the island. Battery Park is the most popular
national park in the nation with over 4 million visitors a year, thanks in large part to being the site
of ticket sales to nearby Ellis and Liberty Islands.
The fort became property of the city after the war and was renamed Castle Garden. By the
1840’s, it had become a popular promenade and beer garden. Later roofed-over, it was one of the
premier theatrical venues in the United States and contributed greatly to the development of New
York City as the theater capital of the nation.
It was also a popular spot to watch incoming and outgoing cargo ships. After a New York
clipper had finished loading, it was the custom for her to drop down the East River and anchor off
Battery Park, where she would remain for a few hours to take her crew on board. The spectators
gathering at Battery Park to see a clipper ship get underway came partly to hear the sailors sing
their sea chanties.
66
As immigrants began to settle in the Battery area in the mid-1800’s, the location was became
less accommodating to theater patrons, and Castle Garden was closed. The structure was then
made into the world's first immigration depot, processing millions of immigrants beginning in 1855
– almost 40 years before its successor, Ellis Island, opened its doors. This period coincided with
immigration waves resulting from Ireland’s Great Hunger. The park contains New York’s nod to the
Irish Famine, just south of the Work Trade Center.
Five months after being damaged but not destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, Fritz Koenig's The Sphere, which once stood as a symbol of world peace at the center of the
plaza of the World Trade Center a few blocks away, was reinstalled in a temporary location along
Eisenhower Mall in the northern section of the park. It remains there to this day, and is now a
political hot potato that no politician wants to resolve. Proposals to put it into storage at JFK
Airport, or to move it to the new memorial site, close by where it once stood, have both been
rejected by opposing parties.
The Sphere and eternal flame 9/11 memorial
While the park may appear like a peaceful and quiet site, just a few feet under this serene
setting is a busy transport hub. Underneath the park is the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, carrying
vehicular traffic to Brooklyn, the Battery Park Underpass, carrying vehicular traffic from West
Street to the FDR Drive, the IRT Broadway, which services both the Seventh Avenue Line and IRT
Lexington Avenue Line with a balloon loop (enabling trains to turn around and switch between the
two lines), and the South Ferry subway complex.
While working on a new South Ferry subway station in Battery Park, workers uncovered the
remains of a 200-year-old stone wall, most likely a portion of the gun batteries that once protected
the city in the late 17th and 18th centuries and gave rise to the modern park name. A total of four
distinct walls and over 250,000 individual artifacts were found in the excavation, with a portion of
one wall placed on temporary display inside Castle Clinton. In 2009, a long portion of wall was
embedded permanently into the entrance to the newly constructed station.
67
Brooklyn Battery Tunnel
The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel crosses under the East River at its mouth, connecting the
Borough of Brooklyn on Long Island with the Borough of Manhattan. It consists of twin tubes,
carrying four traffic lanes, and at 9,117 feet (1.75 miles), is the longest continuous underwater
vehicular tunnel in North America. It has a total of four ventilation buildings: two in Manhattan, one
in Brooklyn, and one on Governors Island that can completely change the air inside the tunnel
every 90 seconds.
Construction began in October 1940, with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. A large part of Little Syria, a mostly Christian Syrian/Lebanese neighborhood
centered around Washington Street, was razed to create the entrance ramps for the tunnel. The
shops and residents of Little Syria later moved to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The tunnel was
designed by Ole Singstad and partially completed when World War II brought a halt to construction.
The tunnel opened to traffic on May 25, 1950.
Robert Moses had originally attempted to scuttle the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel proposal and
have a bridge built in its place. Many objected to the proposed bridge on the grounds that it would
spoil the dramatic view of the Manhattan skyline, reduce Battery Park to minuscule size and
destroy what was then the New York Aquarium at Castle Clinton. Moses remained adamant, and it
was only an order from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, via military channels, which restored the
tunnel project, on the grounds that a bridge built seaward of the Brooklyn Navy Yard would prove a
hazard to national defense. This edict was issued in spite of the fact that the Manhattan Bridge and
the Brooklyn Bridge were already seaward of the Navy Yard.
The tunnel was closed in advance of Hurricane Sandy and completely flooded on October 29,
2012, from severe storm surge produced by the system. It reopened on November 13 following a
cleanup process that included the removal of an estimated 86 million gallons of water. The tunnel
was the last New York City river crossing to reopen.
Two views of the tunnel entrances during Hurricane Sandy.
68
Governors Island
Governors Island is a 172-acre island in Upper New York Bay, approximately one-half mile
(1 km) from the southern tip of Manhattan Island and separated from Brooklyn by Buttermilk
Channel. It is legally part of the borough ofManhattan in New York City. Physically, the island
changed greatly during the early 20th century. Using material excavated from the Lexington Avenue
subway, the Army Corps of Engineers supervised the deposit of 4,787,000 cubic yards of fill on the
south side of Governors Island, adding 103 acres of flat, treeless land by 1912 and bringing the total
acreage of the island to 172.
The Native Americans of the Manhattan region referred to the island as "Paggank", meaning
'nut island', doubtless after the island's plentiful hickory, oak, and chestnut trees; the Dutch
explorer Adriaen Block called it "Noten Eylant", a translation, and this was borrowed into English as
"Nutten Island". The island's current name, made official in 1784, stems from British colonial times
when the colonial assembly reserved the island for the exclusive use of New York's royal governors.
Defensive works were raised on the island in 1776 by Continental Army troops during
the American Revolutionary War, and fired upon British ships before they were taken. From 1783
to 1966, the island was a United States Army post. From 1966 to 1996 the island served as a
major United States Coast Guard installation.
On January 19, 2001, Fort Jay and Castle Williams, two of the island's three historical
fortifications were proclaimed a National Monument. On January 31, 2003, 150 acres of the island
was transferred to the State of New York for $1. The remaining 22 acres was transferred to
the United States Department of the Interior as the Governors Island National Monument,
administered by the National Park Service.
The 150 acre portion of the island not included in the National Monument is administered by
The Trust for Governors Island, an entity of the City of New York. The transfer included deed
restrictions which prohibit permanent housing or casinos on the island.
The national historic landmark district, approximately 92 acres of the northern half of the
island, is open to the public for several months in the summer and early fall. The circumferential
road around the island is also open to the public. The island is accessed by free ferries from
Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Jan Rodrigues from Santo Domingo on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, a Latin American of
African ancestry and a free man, was the first person to summer on Governors Island, in 1613. He
was employed as interpreter in trade negotiations with the Hudson River Indians by Dutch captain
Thijs Volckenz Mossel.
Role In The Revolutionary War
After the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, in one night, April 9,
1776, Continental Army General Israel Putnam fortified the island with earthworks and 40 cannon
in anticipation of the Battle of Long Island (also known as the Battle of Brooklyn), to be the largest
battle of the entire war. The harbor defenses on the island continued to be improved over the
summer, and on July 12, 1776, engaged HMS Phoenix and HMS Rose.
The Americans' cannon inflicted enough damage to make the British commanders cautious of
entering the East River, which later contributed to the success of General George Washington's
retreat across it from Brooklyn into Manhattan. The Continental Army forces eventually withdrew
from the island as well, and the British occupied it in late August. From September 2 to 14, the new
British garrison would engage volleys with Washington's guns on the battery in front of Fort
George in Manhattan. The fort (along with the rest of New York City) was held by the British for the
rest of the war until Evacuation Day at the end of the war in 1783.
69
Buttermilk Channel
Buttermilk Channel is a small tidal strait in Upper New York Bay, approximately one mile long
and one-fourth of a mile wide (separating Governors Island from Brooklyn.) Origins of the name are
uncertain but it is alleged to be a reference to the dairy farmers who used to cross this channel by
boat to sell their milk in Manhattan markets.
Some people believe that the channel got its name because crossing it was so rough that the
farmers' milk was churned in to butter by the time they reached Manhattan. According to another
legend, before the channel was dredged to accommodate cargo ships, cows were walked across it
at low tide to graze on Governor's Island. In his newspaper articles about Brooklyn history, Walt
Whitman wrote of a time "as late as the Revolutionary War (when) cattle were driven across from
Brooklyn, over what is now Buttermilk Channel, to Governors Island."
In the bitter volcanic winter of 1817— the volcanic winter following the "Year Without a
Summer"— when the thermometer dropped to −26 °F (−32 °C), the waters of the Upper Bay froze
so hard that horse-drawn sleighs were driven across Buttermilk Channel to Governors Island.
On the Brooklyn side, modern development started in the 1840s, when the Atlantic Basin and
Docks, and the Erie Basin were started. The former is now the Red Hook Container Port and
the Brooklyn Cruiseship Terminal, while the latter is now the site of the Brooklyn IKEA.
In 1902 the channel was dredged extensively by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. With
current charted depths of 35 to 40 feet Buttermilk Channel is still a busy shipping lane offering the
most convenient access to the Brooklyn waterfront. Until the late 20th century the primary user of
the channel was the U.S. Coast Guard, which had a local headquarters on Governor’s Island.
70
Ellis Island/ Liberty Island
REMINDER: The Captain of the Port of New York has established a permanent Security Zone
around these islands. We are not authorized within 150 yards of the shorelines.
Ellis Island
Ellis Island was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation's
busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. Prior to Ellis Island opening, over eight
million immigrants arriving in New York had been processed by New York State officials at Castle
Garden Immigration Depot in lower Manhattan, just across the bay.
The first federal immigrant inspection station was an enormous three-story tall structure, with
out-buildings, built of Georgia pine, containing all of the amenities that were thought to be
necessary. Three large ships landed on the first day and 700 immigrants passed over the docks.
Almost 450,000 immigrants were processed at the station during its first year. On June 15, 1897, a
fire of unknown origin, possibly caused by faulty wiring, turned the wooden structures on Ellis
Island into ashes. No loss of life was reported, but most of the immigration records dating back to
1855 were destroyed. About 1.5 million immigrants had been processed at the first building during
its five years of use. Plans were immediately made to build a new, fireproof immigration station on
Ellis Island.
The present main structure was designed in French Renaissance Revival style and built of red
brick with limestone trim. When it opened on December 17, 1900, officials estimated 5,000
immigrants per day would be processed. However, the facilities proved to be able to barely handle
the flood of immigrants that arrived in the years just before World War I.
After its opening, Ellis Island was expanded with landfill and additional structures were built.
By the time it closed on November 12, 1954, twelve million immigrants had been processed by the
U.S. Bureau of Immigration. The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756
immigrants processed. After the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed, which greatly restricted
immigration and allowed processing at overseas embassies, the only immigrants to pass through
the station were displaced persons or war refugees. Today, over 100 million Americans - one third
of the population - can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis
Island before dispersing to points all over the country.
Generally, those immigrants who were approved spent from two to five hours at Ellis Island.
Arrivals were asked 29 questions including name, occupation, and the amount of money carried. It
was important to the American government that the new arrivals could support themselves and
have money to get started. The average the government wanted the immigrants to have was
between 18 and 25 dollars (ah, the good old days!). Those with visible health problems or diseases
were sent home or held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time. More than three
thousand would-be immigrants died on Ellis Island while being held in the hospital facilities. Some
unskilled workers were rejected because they were considered "likely to become a public charge".
About 2 percent were denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of origin for
reasons such as having a chronic contagious disease, criminal background, or insanity.
The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and has hosted
a museum of immigration since 1990. A 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found most of
the island to be part of New Jersey. The island has been closed to the public since Hurricane Sandy
in October 2012 with no re-opening date projected.
71
Liberty Island
Liberty Island is a small uninhabited island
in New York Harbor best known as the location
of the Statue of Liberty. Though so called since
the start of the 20th century, the name did not
become official until 1956. In 1937, by
proclamation, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt expanded the Statue of Liberty
National Monument to include all of Bedloe's
Island, and in 1956, an act of Congress officially
renamed it. It became part of the National
Register of Historic Placesalong with the Statue
of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and
Liberty Island in 1966.
On February 15, 1800, the New York
State Legislature ceded the island to the federal
government, for the construction of a defensive
fort to be built there (along with Governor's
Island and Ellis Island). Construction of a land
battery on the island in the shape of an 11-point
star began in 1806 and was completed in 1811.
Following the War of 1812, the fort was
named Fort Wood after Lt. Col Eleazer Derby
Wood who was killed in the Battle of Lake Erie in
1813. The granite fortification followed a star
fort layout with 11 prominent bastions. It later
became a part of the base for the Statue of
Liberty. The National Park Service (which had
been created in 1916) took over operations of
the island in two stages: 2 acres in 1933, and the
remainder in 1937. The military installation was
completely removed by 1944.
According to the United States Census
Bureau, the island has a land area of 59,558
square meters, or 14.717 acres, which is the
property of the federal government. Liberty
Island is located in the Upper New York Bay
surrounded by the waters of Jersey City, New
Jersey, but its built portions and docks fall under
the jurisdiction of the City of New York.
The historical developments which led to this construction created the rare situation of
an enclave of one state, New York, being situated in another, New Jersey. The island is operated by
the National Park Service and, since September 11, 2001, guarded by around-the-clock patrols of
the United States Park Police Marine Patrol Unit. Liberty Island is 2000 feet east of Liberty State
Park in Jersey City and is 1-5/8 statute miles southwest of Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. Public
access is permitted only by ferries from either of the two parks, which also serve nearby Ellis
Island to the north.
72
Liberty Landing Marina
Prior to the construction of the various tunnels under the Hudson River, a traverse of the
Hudson River required travelers to disembark from trains and get onto one of hundreds of ferries
to finish the last mile to Manhattan. Even when the first commuter rail service under the Hudson
opened in 1907, the annual number of ferry passengers and cargo crossings by water continued to
climb for the next twenty years, peaking at 125 million per year in 1927. Thereafter, the number of
trains delivering passengers and freight to ferry landings rapidly declined, and with it, the great
terminal docks slowly fell out of use - the last railroad ceasing dockside operations in 1967.
Skip forward a few years, when a civic-minded quartet of Jersey City residents envisioned a
beautiful riverfront park showcasing Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, rather than abandoned
and toxic ruins. By 1976, their vision was reality. Shortly after the park opened, developers started
building the city anew, only this time with high-rise apartment buildings and deluxe offices. A
marina sprang up on the southern shore of the old Morris Canal (one of America’s first
“superhighways”, it once provided access from the Hudson River to the Delaware River in Easton,
Pennsylvania - now mostly filled in). The marina is perfectly situated to explore the park’s offerings,
Jersey City, and - as the sun sets – soak in the best views of Manhattan!
The Liberty Landing Marina is located just north and west of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis
Island, and just south and west of the Colgate clock, once the largest clock in the world. Close by
the marina is the still-standing Lackawanna Train Terminal, a remnant of the days when the area
served as the main entry to millions of immigrants in search of a new life in a new land, and as the
penultimate stop for commuters wearily living the dreams of the immigrants.
Across the canal is the Jersey City waterfront, reachable by ferry every 30 minutes. Depending
who you talk to, this area is populated by young professionals who were either crowded out of the
highly competitive living spaces of Manhattan, or who were looking for more air, space, light and
views than those offered in Manhattan. No doubt it’s a bit of both, but the demands of the new
residents have financed a number of new business ventures and eating establishments.
Places to visit –
Liberty Science Center – A great place to take younger children. Permanent exhibits allow
them to practice using a simulated surgical robot, watching live animals eat (and be eaten),
learn about the Hudson River, and more.
Go-Karting – Unleash your inner Mario Andretti! Pole Position Raceway is located 2 miles
from the marina. Drivers must be at least 4 feet tall. No license needed.
Grove Street Bicycles – Rent a bike for a full day or a half-day, and see how much of the
Hudson River waterfront you can cover
Jersey City – Easily reached by the Liberty Ferry, which departs every ½ hour next to the
lightship at the terminal.
Hoboken – Birthplace of baseball and Sinatra, this formerly gritty port town was the site of
“On the Waterfront”. Famous residents include Frank Sinatra and John Cox Stevens (first
commodore of the NYYC). Now both a commuting hub and a vibrant neighborhood, it started
the real estate boom on the west side of the Hudson in the early 80s. It can be reached in 5
minutes by the light rail trolley just three blocks up from the Jersey City ferry stop (Essex
Street Light Rail).
Places to dine –
If you get here early or are leaving later on Sunday, there are plenty of eating options to choose
from. Four highly rated choices in the area include:
73
Satis offers a satisfying brunch from 11 until 4 on weekends, and is a favorite of young hip
foodies. They also run a first-class salumeria for those interested in picking up some victuals
for the passage home.
Marco and Pepe – This tapas bar was one of the first eateries in the area, and remains a
favorite with the locals (perhaps because of the killer brunches, perhaps because of the
extensive collection of single-malt Scotches).
Madame Claude Café, run by French transplants Alice and Martine, offers light and delicious
fare with French flair.
Light Horse Tavern was named in honor of Virginian Harry “Light Horse” Lee, (who captured
400 British soldiers in this area), LHT offers a raw bar and a delectable menu for both adults
and kids, with a full children’s menu.
A constant reminder to everyone in New Jersey that it’s time to brush your teeth! Note that
the photo is somewhat dated – thanks to the rapid building going on as Jersey City re-invents
itself.
The entrance to the marina is between the old railroad terminal building just north of Ellis Island and the
giant Colgate clock. The Liberty Landing Marina monitors channel 72.
74