Liberty Island is a federally owned island inUpper New York Bay in the northeastern United States. Its most notable feature is theStatue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), a large statue byFrédéric Auguste Bartholdi that was dedicated in 1886. The island also contains theStatue of Liberty Museum, which opened in 2019, and exhibits the statue's original torch, which was carried byLiberty from 1886 to 1984.
The geography along the New Jersey banks ofUpper New York Bay before landfilling. Liberty (Bedloe's) Island's location nearNew Jersey led to the state's attempts to assert jurisdiction.
An unusual clause in the 1664 colonial land grant that outlinedNew 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 inGibbons 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 byCongress 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 theU.S. Supreme Court in a 1908 case which also expounded on the compact.[12]
Liberty Island, withEllis Island, downtownJersey City (left), and Manhattan (right) in background
In 1986, a suit brought by New Jersey residents challenging theNew York state government's jurisdiction over Liberty Island was dismissed.[13] The same year,U.S. RepresentativeFrank J. Guarini andGerald McCann, thenmayor of Jersey City, sued thegovernment of New York City, contending that New Jersey should have dominion over Liberty Island because it is on the New Jersey side of the state line.[14] Since the court chose not to hear the case,[15] the existing legal status remained unchanged. Portions of the island that are above water are part of New York, whileriparian rights to all of the submerged land surrounding the statue belong to New Jersey. The southwestern section, 4.17 acres (1.69 ha),[16] of the island was created by land reclamation.[16][17]
In 1998, theUnited States Supreme Court decided the state jurisdiction of the nearbyEllis Island inNew Jersey v. New York. Being mostly constructed of artificial infill, New Jersey argued and the court agreed that the 1834 compact covered only the natural parts of the island, and not the portions added by infill. Thus it was agreed that the parts of the island made of filled land belonged to New Jersey while the original natural part belonged to New York.[18] This proved impractical to administer and New Jersey and New York subsequently agreed to share jurisdiction of the entire island.[10][19] This special situation only applies to Ellis Island and part ofShooters Island.[6]
Liberty Island has been owned by the federal government since 1801, first as a military installation and now as a national landmark.Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island, listed on theNational Register of Historic Places since 1966, encompasses land in both states,[20] control of which is superseded by the United States. The undisputed state boundary between New Jersey and New York is in the center of theHudson River and theUpper New York Bay, with Liberty Island situated well on the New Jersey side of the water line with Liberty Island itself anexclave of the State of New York and a part of New York City, allowing the state and city of New York to retain sovereignty of Liberty Island,serve process there and collect sales tax from Liberty Island souvenir shops.[6]
In response to a FAQ about whether the Statue of Liberty is in New York or New Jersey, theNational Park Service, which oversees Liberty Island, cites the 1834 compact.[20] 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.[21]
Both New York City andJersey City have assigned the island lot numbers. Utility services, including electricity, water, and sewage, to Liberty and Ellis Islands are provided from the New Jersey side, while mail is delivered from the Battery in New York.[22]
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,[25] as private boats may not dock at the island. A concession was granted in 2007 toStatue Cruises to operate the transportation and ticketing facilities, replacingCircle Line, which had operated the service since 1953.[26] The ferries depart fromLiberty State Park inJersey City andthe Battery inLower Manhattan.[27]
At the time of European colonization of theHudson Riverestuary in the mid-17th century, much of the west side ofUpper New York Bay contained large tidal flats which hosted vastoyster beds, a major source of food for theLenape native people who lived there at the time. Several islands were not completely submerged at high tide. Three of them (later known as Bedloe's/Love/Liberty,Ellis, andBlack Tom) were given the name Oyster Islands (oester eilanden) by the Dutch settlers ofNew Netherland, the first European colony in theMid-Atlantic states. The oyster beds would remain a major source of food for nearly three centuries.[28]Land reclamation, started by the 1870s, particularly by theLehigh Valley Railroad andCentral Railroad of New Jersey, eventually obliterated the beds, engulfed one island and brought the shoreline much closer to the others.[29]
After the surrender ofFort Amsterdam by the Dutch to the British in 1664, the English governorRichard Nicolls granted the island to Captain Robert Needham. It was sold to Isaac Bedloe on December 23, 1667. The island was retained by his estate until 1732 when it was sold for five shillings to New York merchants Adolphe Philipse and Henry Lane. During their ownership, the island was temporarily commandeered by the city of New York to establish asmallpoxquarantine station.[30][31][32][33]
In 1746,Archibald Kennedy (later 11th Earl of Cassilis) purchased the island and a summer residence was established,[34] 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."[35]
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 apest house.
When the British troops occupied New York Harbor in the lead-up to theAmerican Revolutionary War, the island was to be used for housing forTory refugees, withHMS Eagle docked next to it, but on April 2, 1776, the buildings constructed on the island for their use were burned to the ground.[35]
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 theStatue of Liberty given by theThird French Republic for the American 1876 centenary celebrations. It had become a part of the base for the Statue of Liberty after the island was first seen byFrédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the statue's sculptor. The National Park Service (which had been created in 1916) took over operations of the island in two stages: 2 acres (8,100 m2) in 1933, and the remainder in 1937.[3] The military installation was completely removed by 1944.[40][41]: 91–92
The statue, entitledLiberty Enlightening the World,[42] was a gift from the people of France to mark theAmerican Centennial. It was agreed that the Congress would authorize the acceptance of the statue by the President of the United States, and that the War Department would facilitate its construction and presentation.[43]
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 frigateIsère,[44] 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 inaugurated byPresident Grover Cleveland. The name Liberty Island was made official by Congress in 1956.[45]
September 26, 1972: PresidentRichard Nixon visits the statue to open the American Museum of Immigration. The statue's raised right foot is visible, showing thatLiberty is depicted moving forward.The original torch, carried byLiberty from 1886 to 1984, is exhibited at the island'sStatue of Liberty Museum
The American Museum of Immigration formerly operated at Liberty Island. It was dedicated on September 26, 1972, in a ceremony presided over by President of the United StatesRichard Nixon.[46] The museum closed in 1991 following the opening of theEllis Island Immigration Museum.[41]: 19
On October 7, 2016, construction started on the newStatue 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.[47] The original torch, carried byLiberty from 1886 to 1984, 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.[47][48]
^ab"Is Lady Liberty a Jersey Girl?".New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors. February 4, 2014.Archived from the original on April 21, 2017. RetrievedSeptember 6, 2014.
^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.
^"Fees & Passes".Statue Of Liberty National Monument (U.S. National Park Service). May 20, 2019.Archived from the original on October 4, 2019. RetrievedJune 16, 2019.
^Wade, Arthur P. (2011).Artillerists and Engineers: The Beginnings of American Seacoast Fortifications, 1794–1815. CDSG Press. p. 243.ISBN978-0-9748167-2-2.
^"Fort Wood".dmna.ny.gov.Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. RetrievedNovember 27, 2016.
^Roberts, Robert B. (1988).Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States. New York: Macmillan. pp. 594–596.ISBN0-02-926880-X.
^"Fort Wood".Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. RetrievedJuly 29, 2012.
