Liberty Island
| Liberty Island | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | Atlantic Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 40 ° 41 '24 " N , 74 ° 2' 43" W | |
|
||
| length | 350 m | |
| width | 180 m | |
| surface | 5.9 ha | |
| Highest elevation | 4 m | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Liberty Island ( German "Freiheitsinsel" , formerly Bedloe's Island ) is a small uninhabited island in Upper New York Bay in New York Harbor , which is the location of the Statue of Liberty .
Surrounded by New Jersey waters , the island has been owned by the federal government of the United States since 1800 , with jurisdiction under an interstate treaty of 1834 with the state of New York . The island is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and is now administered by the National Park Service .
Liberty Island is 600 meters from Liberty State Park in Jersey City . From Battery Park in Manhattan , the island is 2.6 km away. Although the island is not New Jersey territory, it is on the New Jersey side of the border between New Jersey and New York. The distance from the nearby Ellis Island is approximately 1.6 km.
The island can be reached by the public via ferries that run between Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan or Liberty State Park (Jersey City) and Liberty Island. In addition to Liberty Island, Ellis Island is also used in round trips.
Name story
The Mohegan tribe called them Minnissais , which means "smaller island". At different times it was known as the Great Oyster , Love Island (after Governor Lovelace), Kennedy's Island (after Archibald Kennedy, who acquired the island in 1746), Corporation Island , Bedloo's Island , Bedlow's Island and Bedloe's Island known. The last three names go back to the merchant Isaack Bedloo , who bought the island in 1667. The last two terms are anglicized spellings of the original form. The island had been called Liberty Island since 1900 , but it wasn't until August 3, 1956 that President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially renamed the island Liberty Island . Before the Statue of Liberty was erected on the island, a fortress called Fort Wood was built on Bedloe's Island , a multi-pointed, star-shaped complex made of granite . Because of this, the island was also called Star Fort .
history
Liberty Island is one of several islands near the mouth of the Hudson River . The flags of the Netherlands , England and the United States waved on it. For a short time the island was also loaned to France . It has also been owned by the City of New York City, the State of New York and various private individuals throughout its history.
Before the arrival of European settlers in the 17th century, the island was part of the Mohegan Indian tribe. Under Dutch rule, the island became the property of Isaack Bedloo , a merchant from Calais . In 1664 New York came under English rule. Bedloo died in 1673, after which the island remained part of his estate until his daughter Mary sold it to Adolphe Philipse and Henry Lane for five shillings in 1732 . The island was then used as a quarantine station to curb the spread of smallpox . Archibald Kennedy bought it in 1746 with the intention of using it as a summer resort. Hence the name Kennedy's Island comes from . At the urging of the government, a lighthouse was built on it instead. Since 1756 the island has been used again as a quarantine station. Kennedy eventually sold it for £ 1,000 to the City of New York, which built a hospital on it. In the following years it was leased to different people for different periods of time.
During the American Revolutionary War , the island was conquered by the British in 1776 and served as a refuge for supporters of the British party. During the riots, the buildings on the island were set on fire by rebels for this reason. After the war, the area became part of New York State and a hospital was rebuilt in the 1780s, and the island was known as a good area for oyster fishing. During this time, in 1793, the island was also lent to France for three years.
Bedloe's Island was entrusted to New York State in 1796, but in 1800 the island was finally handed over to the federal government of the United States. She decided to build defenses on Bedloe's Island (and also on Governor's Island and Ellis Island) to protect New York Harbor. So between 1806 and 1811 the fortress Fort Wood (named after Colonel Eleazer Derby Wood ) was built as a star-shaped ten - pointed system with eleven points. In 1812 she was manned during the British-American War . For more than fifty years the island was a military zone. Charles Gibbs , the last pirate hanged in the United States, was hanged on Bedloe's Island in 1831.
In 1877 Bedloe's Island was chosen as the location for the Statue of Liberty. On October 28, 1886, the finished statue was unveiled. It was not until 1937 that administration of the island was transferred from the Ministry of War to the Ministry of the Interior, military facilities on the island were demolished and the statue was renovated. It was not until 1944 that the fort was finally closed and completely demolished in 1948.
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had the island renamed Liberty Island.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the island was closed to the public until December 2001, the statue remained closed until August 2004. Since 2001, the island has been guarded around the clock by units of the United States Coast Guard .
See also
Web links
- National Park Service: Statue of Liberty - Historical Handbook Number , Chapter Early History of Bedloe's Iceland , 1954 (english)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Liberty Island in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey : In NJ waters but under the jurisdiction of NY by interstate compact of 1834. German: “In the territorial waters of New Jersey, but under the jurisdiction of the state of New York due to an interstate Agreement of 1834. "