Governors Island lies just off the tip of Manhattan, closer even than Liberty or Ellis Island, and wedged up near Brooklyn. The American Indians called it Pagganck, “Nut Island,” for its plentiful nut-bearing trees, and sold it to a Dutchman in 1637 for two ax heads, a string of beads, and a handful of nails.
It has been used as a strategic military location for more than two hundred years, coming in especially handy in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, serving as a Confederate prison during the Civil War, and housing air and army personnel and equipment until the 1960s when the Coast Guard took it over. After they left in 1996 it was sold to the people of New York and finally opened a couple of years ago as a National Monument available for visit on the weekends during the summer.
Last weekend Brian and I went there to get away from the city while still in the city. It’s remarkably close, just one quick subway ride and then a short ferry jaunt. And it is outrageously lovely. The top bit of the island that is open to the public centers around a fort built in 1794 and features quiet tree-lined avenues with colonial-style homes and lots and lots of lawn to sprawl on. Absolutely wonderful.
Pictures!
View from the ferry looking north up the East River at the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. The sky was utterly amazing that day.
It has been used as a strategic military location for more than two hundred years, coming in especially handy in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, serving as a Confederate prison during the Civil War, and housing air and army personnel and equipment until the 1960s when the Coast Guard took it over. After they left in 1996 it was sold to the people of New York and finally opened a couple of years ago as a National Monument available for visit on the weekends during the summer.
Last weekend Brian and I went there to get away from the city while still in the city. It’s remarkably close, just one quick subway ride and then a short ferry jaunt. And it is outrageously lovely. The top bit of the island that is open to the public centers around a fort built in 1794 and features quiet tree-lined avenues with colonial-style homes and lots and lots of lawn to sprawl on. Absolutely wonderful.
Pictures!
View from the ferry looking north up the East River at the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. The sky was utterly amazing that day.
View from ferry east to Brooklyn. (Note one of the Olafur Eliasson waterfalls.)
We rented bicycles. This is Colonel’s Row.
From the west side of the island, you can look north at the lower end of Manhattan. Check out those clouds!
From there, you're also relatively close to El Statue.
Neat old fort in star-shaped pattern with crazy trenches.
Inside the most charming fort ever.
I really want to set up housekeeping in one of the peaceful, historic, empty homes on the island. Think anyone would notice? Sigh.
3 comments:
Those old homes were built back when people actually supported the military and felt they deserved the best.
Yeah, it was pretty amazing. They were so beautiful, Mama. Probably quite different from the Air Force housing you lived in. I imagine they had to throw up a lot of military facilites pretty quickly during the expansions of WWI and WWII.
Most of the older bases had a street called Generals' Row. The houses there, as the name suggests, were for the "top brass". The Generals' Row at Offuft Air force base in Nebraska had houses that looked like the ones you saw. We regular people lived in housing that looked like low income subdivisions.
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