NEW YORK'S STATEN ISLAND FERRY

A sight as familiar in New York as the Empire State building, this ferry is a vital link to the fastest growing borough in the City

A free ride, it's the best value in the city of New York; a popular tourist "must" that takes you up close to the Statue of Liberty and only requires an hour's time, round trip. We're talking about taking a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, a floating mecca of thrills, fun and enlightenment for maritime buffs of every age.

As far back as the 1700s some form of water borne transportation has linked downtown Manhattan with the city's least populated Borough - Staten Island. Thanks to its connection with the VerrazanoNarrows bridge Staten Island is now the city's fastest growing residential area and even then its 102,500-sq-mi area offers the city its lowest population ratio for its paltry 443,000 residents.

Now operated by the New York City Department of Transportation, the ferry system is actually a fleet of nine ferries which carry more than 65,000 persons a day or 19 million passengers per year on the 5.2-mi trip from Battery Park (South Ferry) to the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island. Generally, five individual boats make the required 104 trips per day, or 33,000 circuits annually. The ferry runs 365 days a year around the clock. Today only riders and bicycles are accommodated aboard the ferries, but prior to the 9/11 tragedy vehicles were also allowed.

For the better part of the 20th century the ferry was regarded as the city's best bargain famed for its five cent fare even after a ride on the subway rose to ten cents in 1948. The fare climbed to a quarter per round trip in 1975 and then 50 cents in 1990, but was eliminated altogether in 1997 to help encourage the borough's residential growth. Over the years countless millions of tourists have taken advantage of the ferry's superb photographic views of the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan's imposing skyline.

A HISTORY RICH IN LEGEND AND THE MOVIES

Ferry service began by individual entrepreneurs in the 1700s utilizing shallow-draft two-masted sailboats called "periaugers" widely used for local traffic and freight hauling in New York Harbor. In the early 1800s the Richmond Turnpike Company (RTC) was formed to develop the village of Tompkinsville and in so doing was given a charter to run ferry service to New York. In 1817 RTC began the first motorized service between New York and Staten Island with the steamer Nautilus captained by John De Forest, brother-in-law of enterprising millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt made his fortunes by utilizing steamboats on New York's waterways, and in 1838 bought control of RTC which he retained until the Civil War began in 1860 when it was profitably sold to a new venture known as the Staten Island Railway (SIR).

As Staten Island rapidly developed in the 1850s the ferry grew in importance, but unfortunately its limited schedule and the poor condition of its boats often brought severe criticism. With the completion of the Staten Island Railway in 1860 several larger, new boats were acquired. Sadly, one of these created a scandalous calamity when the WestBeld's boiler exploded in its South Ferry slip on the afternoon of 30 July 1871. Eighty-five were killed and several hundred others were badly scalded in the blast and ensuing fire. Cornelius Vanderbilt's brother, Jacob, president of the SIR, was charged with murder but was later exonerated.

Eventually, Cornelius Vanderbilt owned all of the areas many ferry services to adjoining boroughs and New Jersey, and these were sold to the B&O Railroad in 1884 and placed under the operation of the newly formed Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad (SIRT). Another illtimed accident happened which claimed five lives when on 14 June 1901 the ferry NorthSeld was struck and sunk by another ferry while leaving the South Ferry slip. Although the accident was not of the magnitude of the WestGeld disaster it raised enough of a political storm to bring about New York's seizure of SIRT by its Department of Docks and Ferries in 1905. In the ensuing reorganization five new ferries were commissioned, each named for one of the boroughs.

Set against such a colorful and interesting backdrop as the world's busiest harbor it was no surprise when Hollywood's filmmakers early learned the photogenic potential of the Staten Island ferry. Although filming began in the silent era of Charlie Chaplin comedies the introduction of sound in 1929 made the whistle of a ferry's horn a most welcome cinematic element. In more recent times the ferries and their equally interesting terminals have appeared in everything from David Letterman's Tonight Show to episodes in the recent TV series Law and Order and Sex and the City. The Staten Island ferry was immortalized in the 1956 classic I Love Lucy show segments where the Ricardos and Mertzes prepared for their first transatlantic sojourn on an ocean liner by taking a ferry ride. Literally dozens of feature films have had sequences filmed aboard the ferries while docked or underway. Among these was Sophia Loren's provocative dance in 1959's That Kind of Woman, 1988's Working Girl with Melanie Griffith, and most recently the 2006 feature World Trade Center. The terminals themselves were fair game for Hollywood's cameras in Martin Scorscese's 1969 hit Who's That Knocking on My Door, filmed in the St. George terminal. In 1978, even the Beatles parody The Rutles capitalized on the ferry's allure.