I spent Saturday with my Mom on a little field trip. We packed some lunch and headed toward Governors Island. It was the last weekend that it's open to the public for 2007 but it will reopen again in June of 2008. For those of you unfamiliar with this island, here's an overview from the Governors Island website.
Governors Island is located in the New York Harbor, approximately one-half mile from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan and one-quarter mile from Brooklyn. The Island is 172 acres with nearly 225 buildings, considerable open space, and recreational amenities. Its waterfront offers some of the most dramatic and impressive vistas of the New York skyline and New York Harbor, including the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The northern half of the Island, consisting of approximately 92 acres, has been designated as both a National Historic Landmark District and a New York City Historic District, and features late 18th and early 19th century fortifications, pre-Civil War arsenal buildings, Victorian and Romanesque Revival housing, as well as early 20th century neo-classical architecture. Five buildings within the Historic District, including Fort Jay and Castle Williams, are individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
There is a free ferry you can catch at the Battery Maritime Building which is right next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. We took a short, free guided tour, ate lunch, and walked around afterwards. It really felt worlds away from the city with rolling hills of green grass except for the constant helicopter traffic overhead.
(photo from the Governors Island website)
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