Governors Island (Part Three)

In Part One, I covered the more widespread details of the Governors Island, and here, as in Part Two with Castle Williams, I will be going into the specifics of one landmark on the island.
As I mentioned in Parts One and Two, this post covers Fort Jay.

Sadly, I took a ferry over, and not a plane or helicopter, so I can’t include an aerial shot of this beautiful star-shaped fort.

The first fort built on the spot was in April of 1776 for the Revolutionary War.
In 1794, the fort was rebuilt once the Brits gave up the place after the Battle of Brooklyn, but it was mostly structured of wood.
Construction on the heavier fortifications began in 1808, and was then named after Federalist New York governor John Jay.

In the 1830s, the fort was renamed Fort Columbus after the explorer, but changed back to Fort Jay in 1904.

In 1964, the Army announced it was vacating the island, taking all of their toys along with them.

The Coast Guard took control of the entire island in 1965, using Fort Jay as staff offices, until it left in 1997.
The City of New York took over the island in 2003, making it a city park, which now lets folks like me take shots of cool things like this:

Stay tuned, next week, for Part Four, which will probably be the best (and creepiest) pics of this visit!

Governors Island (Part Two)

In Part One, I had us take a visual stroll around Governors Island, while only showing general landmarks.
In this post, I’ll be covering some of the particulars of Castle Williams, which was built in 1807, under the direction of Lt. Colonel Jonathan Williams, as a defensive system for NYC’s inner harbor.

During the Civil War, the building was used to house Confederate prisoners, and later it became a minimum security prison, though the island maintained an Army base within Fort Jay (Part Three).

When landfill operations doubled the size of the island in the early 1900s, Secretary of War Elihu Root began a movement to preserve the forts and barracks as landmarks.

In 1965, the Coast Guard took over the island when the Army base was moved to Maryland, and almost demolished the castle fort, until deciding to make it a community center.

In 1997, the Coast Guard split, leaving the place rather empty, until 2003 when the National Parks Services listed the entire island as a national monument, and opened it up to the public as a park.

See you next week, for Part Three, where we will look inside the island's former Army post: Fort Jay.

Governors Island (Part One)

In NYC, there’s a small island just south of the tip of Manhattan that is also a city park.
Originally called Paggank, meaning: nut island, it was renamed Governors Island in 1784, which stemmed from colonial times when it was used as a home for New York’s royal governors.
The city provides a free ferry ride (from May through September) from Brooklyn, so I took their hospitable offer, and floated on over.

After docking, we headed over to inspect the old Army YMCA, the barracks, and the military theater, while leaving the best for last.

Walking to the other side of the island, my party came upon Castle Williams (which I will cover at length, as well as post more photos, in Part Two)…

…the old library…

…Fort Jay (not pictured, as its story is upcoming Part Three), the Governor’s Mansion...

...and the South Battery.

Next, and last up, was the creepy children’s fair, but I’m saving that nightmare fuel for the final post (Part Four) in this series.
From the boat, I waved goodbye to the shores of that bizarre little hunk of sand on the Buttermilk Channel of Upper New York Bay.
As uneventful as the trip back home may have been, while I was there the island itself was kinda thrilling.

Morris-Jumel Mansion

I thought a fun way to spend some time would be to visit the oldest house in Manhattan.

The Morris-Jumel Mansion was built in 1765 by a British colonel. The home was confiscated during the Revolutionary War, and George Washington used it as a crash pad.
In 1790, he threw a dinner party, where he entertained Thomas Jefferson and others in the Octagon Room.

This was Washington’s bedroom and study.

The home was later sold to a French wine importer named Stephen Jumel. After his death, his ex married Alexander Hamilton’s murderer, Aaron Burr.
This is one of the Madame’s bedrooms.

After the wonderful visit inside, and a stroll though the property's garden, I walked up High Bridge Park to see, both, the park's namesake, which is the 2nd oldest pedestrian bridge in Manhattan (first built in 1860, and finished in 1883), and the High Bridge Water Tower, which was built in 1872.

All Along the Hudson River (Part Two)

Let’s continue the walk up Manhattan's west side, as we traverse the eastern banks of the Hudson River, along the Hudson River Greenway walk and bike path.
After Riverside Park South (see last entry), the next interesting sight to come across is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, located on 89th Street.

Built in 1900, it is a white marble monument to Union Army soldiers of the American Civil War. The idea first came about in 1869, and planning began in 1893, though the original site was to be on 5th Ave and 59th Street. The look was designed by architects Charles and Arthur Stoughton, after a public competition. The area was designated a landmark in 1976 by the National Registry, and later in 2001 by the New York Landmark Commission.

A little north of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, at 93rd Street, one will find a statue of Joan of Arc on a horse, which was sculpted by Anna Hyatt Huntington, with architectural design by John V. Van Pelt.
It is possible this is the first statue in Manhattan of a historical female figure, as well as one created by a woman. The monument was revealed to the public in December of 1915, and was presented to mark the 500th anniversary of the saint’s birth.
I ended my walk at about 125th Street, where both Grant’s Tomb, and Riverside Church are located.

After the death of then President Ulysses S. Grant in 1885, his family decided to keep his remains in NYC. Soon after, mayor William Russell Grace pleaded with the public to create a national monument in Grant’s honor.
Decided in a public competition in 1889, the winner was architect John Hemenway Duncan, who, in 1883, constructed the Washington Monument at Newburgh, and the Tower of Victory.

He designed the tomb's granite exterior after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and the interior, with the twin sarcophagi of Grant and his wife Julia, are modeled after the sarcophagus of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Amiable Child Monument is located just north of Grant's Tomb. It’s a small slab dedicated to a young boy who died in the area near New York City in 1797, placed there by, either, the boy’s uncle or father. The site is one, of only two, single-occupancy graves in Manhattan (the other is Worth Square).
A little north of the area, the Hudson River Greenway keeps going, but, after Riverside State Park (on 138th Street), it does not reconnect to another park, until Two Riverside Drives Park along 158th Street, so it may be best for the weary to stop and rest at Riverside Church.
Located on 120th Street, and Riverside Drive, in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood, it is considered one of the most beautiful churches in the city.
Conceived by industrialist  John D. Rockefeller Jr., and minister Harry Emerson Fosdick, the church was built in 1927, and nave was designed after the 13th-century Gothic Chartres Cathedral in France.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, and, on certain days, is an amazing place for quiet and solitude.

Before you head back home (or to your hotel), stop under the Riverside Drive Viaduct to see the remains of the old IRT 3rd Avenue Line from the late 1800s, which are found in front of a few restaurants on 12th Ave and St. Clair Place.

Then cross the street to see the legendary Cotton Club (which is still open), where jazz men like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington used to bring the house down. Enjoy a drink, or see if one of the musicians are rolling one, because you probably walked a hell of a lot today.