Liberty Island
Liberty Island | |
---|---|
Upper New York Bay | |
Coordinates | 40°41′20″N 74°02′40″W / 40.68889°N 74.04444°W |
Area | 14.717 acres (59,560 m2) |
Governing body | National Park Service |
Designated |
|
Designated by | |
Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island | |
Designated | October 15, 1966 |
Reference no. | 66000058 |
Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island | |
Designated | May 27, 1971 |
Reference no. | 1535[2] |
New York City Landmark | |
Type | Individual |
Designated | September 14, 1976 |
Liberty Island is a federally owned
Long known as Bedloe's Island, it was renamed by an act of the
Liberty Island became part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1937 through Presidential Proclamation 2250, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[3] In 1966, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island, and Liberty Island.[4]
Geography and access
According to the
State sovereignty disputes
There were a number of disputes regarding the jurisdictional status of the island before it was settled by the Supreme Court in 1998.
State dispute
An unusual clause in the 1664 colonial land grant that outlined New Jersey's borders reads: "westward of Long Island, and Manhitas Island and bounded on the east part by the main sea, and part by Hudson's river"[8] rather than at the river's midpoint, as was common in other colonial charters.[9]
In 1824 the City of New York attempted to assert a jurisdictional monopoly over the growing ferry service in New York Harbor in Gibbons v. Ogden. It was deemed by the court that interstate transport would be regulated by the federal government. This did not resolve the border issue. In 1830, New Jersey planned to bring suit,[10] but the matter was resolved with a compact between the states ratified by US Congress in 1834, which set the boundary line between them as the midpoint of the shared waterway.[7][11] This would place Bedloe's (Liberty) Island and Ellis Island in New Jersey; however, the compact included an exception specifying that they remain the territory of New York.[11] This was later confirmed by the US Supreme Court in a 1908 case which also expounded on the compact.[12]
In 1986 a suit brought by New Jersey residents challenging New York State's jurisdiction over Liberty Island was dismissed.
In 1998, the
Federal ownership
Liberty Island has been owned by the federal government since 1801, first as a military installation and now as a national landmark.
In response to a FAQ about whether the Statue of Liberty is in New York or New Jersey, the National Park Service, which oversees Liberty Island, cites the 1834 compact.[21] Question 127 on a naturalization examination piloted in 2006 asks "Where is the Statue of Liberty?" The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services gives "New York Harbor" and "Liberty Island" as preferred answers, but notes that "New Jersey", "New York", "New York City", and "on the Hudson" are acceptable.[22]
Both New York City and
The statue was featured on
Public access
Two ferry slips are located at the southwestern side of Liberty Island. No charge is made for entrance to the Statue of Liberty National Monument, but there is a cost for the ferry service,
History
Great Oyster Island
At the time of European colonization of the
Bedloe's Island
After the surrender of
In 1746, Archibald Kennedy (later 11th Earl of Cassilis) purchased the island and a summer residence was established,[35] along with construction of a lighthouse. Seven years later, the island is described in an advertisement (in which "Bedlow's" had become "Bedloe's", along with an alternate name of "Love Island") as being available for rental:
To be Let. Bedloe's Island, alias Love Island, together with the dwelling-house and lighthouse being finely situated for a tavern, where all kinds of garden stuff, poultry, etc., may be easily raised for the shipping outward bound, and from where any quantity of pickled oysters may be transported; it abounds with English rabbits."[36]
In 1756, Kennedy allowed the island to again be used as a smallpox quarantine station, and on February 18, 1758, the Corporation of the City of New York bought the island for £1,000 for use as a pest house.
When the British troops occupied New York Harbor in the lead-up to the American Revolutionary War, the island was to be used for housing for Tory refugees, with HMS Eagle docked next to it, but on April 2, 1776, the buildings constructed on the island for their use were burned to the ground.[36]
Fort Wood
On February 15, 1800, the
By the time it was chosen for the Statue of Liberty in the 1880s, the fort was outmoded and obsolete, disused and its substantial stone walls were then used as the distinctive base for the
Statue of Liberty
The statue, entitled
The construction of the statue was completed in France in July 1884. The cornerstone was laid on August 5, 1884, and after some funding delays, construction of the pedestal was finished on April 22, 1886. The statue arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885, on board the French frigate Isère,[45] was stored for eleven months in crates waiting for its pedestal to be finished, and was then reassembled in four months. On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled by President Grover Cleveland. The name Liberty Island was made official by Congress in 1956.[46]
Museums
American Museum of Immigration
The American Museum of Immigration formerly operated at Liberty Island. It was dedicated on September 26, 1972, in a ceremony presided over by
Statue of Liberty Museum
On October 7, 2016, construction started on the new Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island. The new $70 million, 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) museum is able to accommodate all of the island's visitors, as opposed to the former museum, which only 20 percent of the island's daily visitors could visit.[48] The original torch is located here along with exhibits relating to the statue's construction and history. There is a theater where visitors can watch an aerial view of the statue.[48][49]
The museum, designed by
See also
- Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty in popular culture
- Castle Clinton – Restored fort in Manhattan, New York
- Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal – Former intermodal terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey
- New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary – One of the most intricate natural harbors in the world
- List of enclaves and exclaves
- Prall's Island – Island in the Arthur Kill in New York and New Jersey
- Robbins Reef Light – 1883 sparkplug lighthouse, Bayonne, NJ
References
- ^ "Proclamation 1950: Enlarging the Statue of Liberty National Monument New York". Code of Federal Regulations: Title 3—The President 1936–1938 Compilation. National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration. 1968. pp. 120–121.
- ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places – Hudson County". New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection – Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
- ^ a b "Early History of Bedloe's Island". Statue of Liberty Historical Handbook. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 28, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
- ISBN 0760738904. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-88097-763-0.
- ^ a b c New Jersey v. New York, 523 U.S. 767, page 779 (May 26, 1998).
- ^ a b "Statue of Liberty National Monument – Frequently Asked Questions". National Park Service. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ^ "The Duke of York's Release to John Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, 24 June 1664". The Avalon Project Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. December 18, 1998. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
- ^ Rieff, Henry. "Intrepretations of New York-New Jersey Agreements 1834 and 1921" (PDF). Newark Law Review. 1 (2).
- ^ a b Greenhouse, Linda (May 27, 1998). "The Ellis Island Verdict: The Ruling; High Court Gives New Jersey Most of Ellis Island". The New York Times.
- ^ a b United States Statutes at Large: Volume 4
- ^ "Central R. Co. of New Jersey v. Jersey City, 209 U.S. 473 (1908)". Retrieved July 29, 2012.
- ^ "Bridge: Decisions by a Jersey Judge Get Some Second-Guessing". New York Times. June 30, 1986. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
- ^ "New Jerseyans' Claim To Liberty Island Rejected". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 6, 1987. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
- ^ "Statue of Liberty a Legal New Yorker, Supreme Court Says". LA Times. October 5, 1987. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
- ^ "Is Liberty a Jersey Girl". New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors. February 4, 2014.
- ^ "Historic Fill of the Jersey City Quadrangle: Historic Fill Map HFM-53" (PDF). New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection. 2004. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
- ^ "Is Lady Liberty a Jersey Girl?". New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors.
- ^ "National Park Service map showing portions of the island belonging to New York and New Jersey". Archived from the original on February 23, 2010.
- ^ Brogan, Pamela; Gannett News Service (May 27, 1998). "Court rules Ellis Island is mostly in New Jersey". Courier-Post. Camden, NJ. pp. 1, 4 – via newspapers.com .
- ^ a b "Statue of Liberty National Monument". National Park Service. December 13, 2007. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
- ^ "Questions and Answers for New Pilot Naturalization Exam". U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. November 30, 2006. Archived from the original on December 5, 2006. Retrieved December 1, 2006.
- ^ "Statue of Liberty Lighthouse". Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
- ^ "State to start issuing new license plates July 1". The New York Times. January 24, 1986. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ^ "State license plates to get new look". The New York Times. January 11, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ^ "Fees & Passes". Statue Of Liberty National Monument (U.S. National Park Service). May 20, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
- ^ Ramirez, Anthony (June 29, 2007). "Circle Line Loses Pact for Ferries to Liberty Island". The New York Times. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
- ^ "NPS: Liberty and Ellis Island ferry map". Ferry Map. National Park Service. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-345-47639-5.
- ^ "Providing Better Terminal Facilities for New York". Engineering News Record: 258. July 31, 1880. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
- ^ "Spell it with a "W" It should not be Bedloo's Island but "Bedlow's"" (PDF). The New York Times. August 14, 1886. Retrieved April 8, 2011.
- ^ Harvey, Cornelius Burnham (1900). "Genealogical History Of Hudson And Bergen Counties New Jersey Early Settlers of Bergen County". Retrieved December 13, 2012.
- ^ "History of the Statue of Liberty and Bedlow's Island". New York: Regimental Press. Archived from the original on February 4, 2008.
- ushistory.org. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ^ "Liberty Island Chronology". Retrieved January 25, 2013.
- ^ a b "Historic Buildings as seen and described by famous writers" (txt). Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ^ "Fort Wood (Liberty Island) and Fort Gibson (Ellis Island), U.S. National Park Service".
- ISBN 978-0-9748167-2-2.
- ^ "Fort Wood". dmna.ny.gov.
- ISBN 0-02-926880-X.
- ^ "Fort Wood". Retrieved July 29, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7385-3689-7.
- ^ "Liberty Enlightening the World". Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. Archived from the original on January 1, 2020. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "Liberty's Statue Full Programme of the Inaugural Ceremonies" (PDF). The New York Times. October 10, 1886. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
- ^ "Delaware Division of Libraries Blog". Retrieved July 29, 2012.
- ^ "USGS:LI". Retrieved July 29, 2012.
- University of California Santa Barbara. September 26, 1972. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
- ^ a b Durkin, Erin (October 6, 2016). "Statue of Liberty getting new $70M museum set to open in 2019". NY Daily News. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
- ^ a b c Plagianos, Irene (October 6, 2016). "See Designs for the New Statue of Liberty Museum". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
- ^ Pereira, Ivan (October 6, 2016). "Statue of Liberty Museum to open in 2019". am New York. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
- ^ Rosenberg, Zoe (May 1, 2019). "Statue of Liberty will ban tour guides from some of its most popular areas". Curbed NY. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
- ^ Kilgannon, Corey (April 1, 2019). "Everyone's Welcome at the Statue of Liberty. Except Tour Guides". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
External links
- National Park Service Bedloe's Island web site
- National Park Service's Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island site
- Bedloe's Island in 1867 at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania