On Saturday I was browsing through a free newspaper Drew picked up at the subway and I saw something that read, “Last day to see Governor’s Island for free Sunday, September 1st.” I had no idea what it was, but I thought we should definitely go, especially since it was the last day to go. Drew agreed. So after heading to Mass at the beautiful Church of Notre Dame, we hopped on the 1 - train and headed south to the tip of Manhattan.

I must let all of you know that the subways are crazy on the weekends. Usually the 1 train would take us right to the port for the ferry to Governor’s Island, but not so on the weekend. We had to find another train that took us close to where we wanted to go before we hit 14th street. Luckily, we have started the habit of always carrying a subway map with us, so even though we will perpetually look like tourists, we know (kind of) where we are going….unless its the weekend, of course.

So we made it down to the port for the 2:00 ferry ride to the island. We boarded the ferry and settled in for the trek. About 5 minutes later we were there. Apparently, Governor’s Island is only about 800 yards from the tip of Manhattan. This was a good thing for me since I seem to have inherited my dad’s weak stomach for the seas.

We hooked up with the walking tour that was about to start. As we were waiting, I learned that Sunday was indeed the last day to visit the island. However, it was not the last day ever, it was simply the last day of this summer. So, the island will still be available for all of our guests next summer.

The walking tour was about 45 minutes long. It was quite enjoyable. The tour guide gave us a brief, but very interesting history of the island. It was a strategic military post dating back to the 1770’s through the 1960’s.

It had served as a place to hold prisoners of the Confederate army and the Union army at different points during the Civil War. In the early 90’s it was a post for the Coast Guard. Now it is owned in part by the National Parks and the City and State of New York.

Another interesting tidbit that I learned on the tour was that more than half of the island was man made. When the subway was being built in Manhattan, they decided to haul all the excess dirt to the island. If you look at a map of the island now, you will see it looks like and ice cream cone. Pretty much every thing that makes up the “cone” part of the island was put there by man. Additionally we were told, a large part of lower Manhattan was man made. Its pretty mind boggling to think that the land you are walking on was dumped there by some people however many years ago

There are major plans for redevelopment of the Island. The National Parks plan to preserve their parts of the island, while the New York City and State are planning major changes and additions to their portions.

After the walking tour we meandered around on our own for a while. It was pretty amazing. From the island we could at once see the Statue of Liberty, Jersey City, Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn. And, even though were were only 800 yards from New York City, there were not very many people. It was quiet and peaceful. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

We got back on the ferry and headed back to Manhattan. On our way back to the subway we strolled along Wall Street. We happened upon the spot where George Washington took the first oath to become President of the United States. We also ran into the Charging Bull, which I had never heard of, but Drew had. He insisted that you are supposed to touch the Bull’s…um private parts for good luck. As a good wife I had to believe him. So, I went and grabbed my self some good luck. I figure I need it in NYC, right?

All in all it was a very exciting day filled with crazy subway interchanges, old cannons, GW, and a bull. Only in New York. :)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Manhattan, NYC Places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.