OTHER SIGHTS AROUND NEW YORK CITY--
"Cruise" Trips around the Big Apple                           

The free Staten Island ferry offers beautiful views of the city.

"You don't want to carry that heavy camera all day," warned Andy before we left home for the train station.
He was absolutely right, so the mental images are all that remain of some of our history lessons and travel excursions in and around New York City.
"Today I'm taking you on a cruise," announced Andy in January as we left Grand Central Station and headed for the subway.
He neglected to tell me that it was the Staten Island Ferry with free rides from The Battery to Staten Island.  It runs five miles in New York Harbor between Manhattan and Staten Island.
"See, I spare no coast," he added, as we boarded and cruised across the upper New York Bay.

As the boat pulls farther away from Manhattan, we see
more and more of the New York skyline.

Sea gulls swooped overhead, but most of the human passengers stayed inside out of the wind.
Once across, we could tell that many others had taken the ferry for a free boat ride.  "It's in the tourist guides," explained Andy to a small group of high school kids who were headed for college music auditions at Columbia and New York University.  The tourists exited the gangplank at the terminal, circled around the walkway and got back in line for the return boat ride.

Andy braves the chill in his denim
jacket as wind whips around the stern.

Bundled for the weather, Sue waits
impatiently for the camera to click.

Other trips to New York allowed us to visit the homes of Theodore Roosevelt and Alexander Hamilton.  We didn't think about pictures then.  And the visits occurred before I had purchased the miniature tablet.  And we certainly didn't think about the musical Hamilton, even though that would be a prime interest for me today.

But for one of our trips not long ago we did take another ferry for an excursion to Governors Island.  The island is a 172-acre island park in Upper New York Bay, about 800 yards from the southern tip of Manhattan Island and separated from Brooklyn by Buttermilk Channel.  It formed an important blockade for the city during the Revolutionary War and during succeeding conflicts.  Fortifications built on the most strategic defensive positions served as outposts to protect New York City from sea attack.
Fort Jay, first constructed in the 1790's and reconstructed between 1806 and 1809, is on the highest point of the island.  The surrounding open space, also called glacis, slopes down to the waterfront on all sides.
Castle Williams, started in 1807 and completed in 1811, occupies a rocky shoal that extended into the harbor channel at the northwest corner of the island and served as the most important strategic defensive point in the upper bay of New York Harbor.  These defensive fortifications played important roles in the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II.  Fort Jay remained in operation from 1794 on.

The entrance to Fort Jay, dating to 1794 and currently
being reconstructed, is the oldest structure on
Governors Island.

The Coast Guard had established a base on the island in 1966, after the U.S. Army closed Fort Jay. The Coast Guard conveyed the base to surplus property for disposal in 1996, in an attempt to close a $400,000,000 budget gap.  The closure represented an estimated $30,000,000 of savings in October, 1995.  Then President Bill Clinton and New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan reached an informal agreement to convey the island to the City and State of New York for $1, if a plan for public benefit could be developed.  Finally, in August of 1997, as part of legislation to balance the budget, Congress directed that the entire island be sold with a right of first offer to the State and City of New York.

Castle William, now undergoing much needed
renovation, offers a glimpse into the military past.

As President Clinton left office in January of 2001, there was still no resolution of the island's future, but at the urging of members of the New York congressional delegation, he established a Governors Island National Monument by Presidential Proclamation on January 19, 2001. 
The proclamation did not fully establish the boundaries of the monument, but it did set forth the federal intention of preserving the fortifications, Fort Jay and Castle Williams, the oldest and most historic features on the island. The Justice Department under President George W. Bush concluded the proclamation possessed technical errors, but luckily for New York the proclamation was not revoked or invalidated.
In an April 2002 White House meeting with city and state officials, President Bush announced his intention to sell the island to the City and State of New York.  It wasn't until January 31, 2003, though that the island was conveyed to an intermediary, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which attached restrictive land use covenants to the deed, and then conveyed to two other parties:  22 acres to the U.S. Department of the Interior for use as a national monument, and 150 acres to the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation for the purpose or administering and redeveloping the island.  Now some of the former Army and Coast Guard buildings are being used for educational and environmental protection purposes.
We spent most of the day hiking the trails and taking the guided tour of Fort Jay.  We could easily have stayed longer, but Broadway called and our show tickets wouldn't wait!