This year Castle Williams will celebrate its 200th birthday by reopening to the public after a major renovation. Visitors will be able to enter the former prison cells and gun emplacements in the iconic 1811 Castle and access the Castle’s roof for spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline. Designed Colonel Johnathan Williams, Chief Engineer in the Army Corps of Engineers and first Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point – also a nephew of Benjamin Franklin, the Castle protected New York Harbor from naval invasion during the War of 1812. It is the first American-designed military structure and inspired the logo and uniforms of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Governors Island was one of the longest continually operated military installations in the U.S., serving as a U.S. Army base from 1794 until 1966, when it was transferred to the US Coast Guard. It served as the headquarters for the Military Division of the Atlantic and Department of the East and as headquarters of the U.S. First Army.  Numerous important generals were stationed on Governors Island including General Ulysses S. Grant, General John J. Pershing, General Ferderic Dent Grant, and General Leonard Wood.

Castle Williams is one of the two major forts built on the island by the U.S. Army. It was built in the early 1800s to defend New York against the possibility that the British would try to regain the American colonies they had lost only a decade earlier. Originally bristling with three tiers of cannon, it rises at the waterfront facing the Statue of Liberty, one of the two forts – the other is Fort Jay – that comprise the Governors Island National Monument, the 22-acre section of the Island under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Castle Williams is one of New York Harbor’s most prominent landmarks, visible from lower Manhattan and to millions of people visiting the Statue of Liberty and other Harbor destinations.

Castle Williams and its twin, Castle Clinton on the Battery in Manhattan, were part of the newly independent country’s defensive construction known as the “second system.” Fort Jay, completed in 1808, was part of the “first system.” While none of these fortifications saw battle in the War of 1812, the very lack of action was an achievement as they had been constructed as much to deter attack as to fight off an enemy invasion. Castle Williams, with its high profile, was the prototype for a harbor oriented defense that offered concentrated firepower. Some scholars consider it to be the finest and most important example of its type in U.S. coastal fortifications.

 During the Civil War it functioned as a supposedly escape-proof military prison, but Captain William Robert Webb of the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry proved famously that it wasn’t. A few days before the end of the war he went over the wall and swam to Manhattan. When he explained to people why he was wandering around in dressed in rebel greys he told the truth and – disbelieving or uninterested - they let him wander. Years later he was elected to the Senate.

Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, the most notorious draft dodger of the First World War was sentenced in January 1920 to five years of hard labor in Castle Williams, but five months later, under guard on a trip to his home in Pennsylvania, he slipped away and fled to Germany. Returning to America in 1939, as Congress was about to exile him forever, he was again incarcerated on the Island. Castle Williams was also the base for a failed demonstration of the telegraph by its inventor, Samuel F. B. Morse. He laid a wire across the harbor to Castle Clinton, aiming to show how his miraculous device could speed messages between remote places, but a ship dragging its anchor broke the wire and the demonstration didn’t happen. When the Island was transferred to the Coast Guard in 1966, the Castle was converted to a community center. The halls that once held prisoners became a nursery for the children of Coast Guard families posted on the Island.

Under Colonel Boulé’s leadership, the Army Corps of Engineers continues to play a vital role in the Island’s future.  Working the Island’s New York Harbor School – a public High School dedicated to maritime curriculum – and The Trust for Governors Island, the Corps has created an oyster reef off the Island’s northern shoreline.  It is an important step toward implementing the Corp’s Comprehensive Restoration Plan for the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary.

Our June 12th Gala supports the Alliance’s free public programs, like the Opening Day Family Festival and the volunteers that help with the island’s maintenance.  Along with Colonel Boulé, this year’s event will honor two New Yorkers who are help the Island’s revitalization:  Denise Richardson, Managing Director, General Contractors Association of NY and Seth Pinsky, President of the NYC Economic Development Corporation. Click here for more info.

]]> http://www.governorsislandalliance.org/2012/05/gia-gala-a-birthday-party-for-castle-williams/feed/ 0 http://www.governorsislandalliance.org/2012/05/save-the-date-for-the-gia-gala/ http://www.governorsislandalliance.org/2012/05/save-the-date-for-the-gia-gala/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 20:23:15 +0000 Maya http://www.governorsislandalliance.org/?p=832

Performances will run throughout the day featuring the following performances:

Astrograss: This high energy band gets kids and their parents dancing and singing together, with a unique blend of bluegrass, old time, and folk music. Astrograss concerts feature sing-a-longs, dance contests, and fiddle hoedowns. Their original songs cover topics like spelling, whether Pluto is a planet, bedtime, and the many neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

The Maybelles: This harmony driven Americana band led by Jan Bell, is accompanied by Rima Fand and Megan Palmer. With Celtic and Appalachian influences, the band has made the Top Ten Folk Albums (Village Voice), 4 Stars (Now Toronto), and People’s Choice Album of the year (Independent Music  Awards).

Arm of the Sea Theater: For over twenty years, Arm of the Sea Theater has been developing a style of magical realism that marries the mythic and the everyday, humanity and the earth, visual arts and natural science, poetry and politics. Their large-scale productions incorporate ancient theatrical devices for shared enchantment and visual storytelling. With music, gesture and stunning visuals, they illuminate the links between human communities and the life-support processes of this living planet.

The event and the ferry to the island are FREE and no pre-registration is required! Bring a picnic lunch and come join us for a fun afternoon on the Island!

This event is made possible by the generous support of Council Woman Margaret Chin, the JM Kaplan Fund and REI Inc. The Governors Island Alliance volunteer program is sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

To get to Governors Island you can take the free ferry from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street in Lower Manhattan starting at 10AM, starting at 11AM the ferry will run every half hour. You can also come via free ferry from Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park starting at 11AM that will run continuously(roughly every 20 minutes). The last ferries leave Governors Island at 7PM.

 
Reconfiguration of the Island is well underway, in particular key work on infrastructure to update how you come ashore through the Soissons ferry dock. You may not notice the changes when you land, save for the disappearance of the small building on the right as you walk up the ramp. But the hard hats have been out there night and day – yes, in even the bitter cold of winter nighttime – to have the job done when the Island reopens for the season at the end of next month.

The Soissons project is budgeted for $7.1 million of the $154 million Mayor Bloomberg tagged in his capital budget for the current fiscal year (2012). There is another $115 million in capital funding for fiscal 2013 and 2014.

Of the $269 million for the three years, 2012-2014, the biggest part is for Phase 1 of the park: $122 million. There is $41 million for two essentials – electrical work and potable water – as well as $54 million for the seawall, $24 million for dock work at the Battery Maritime Building and on the Island and $11 million to stabilize the historic houses and other buildings that need help.

The immediate work at the Soissons landing involves rehabbing the moving ramps you cross as you get off the boat, and their supporting piles. The piles that define the ferry slips are also being rehabilitated, with the help of $3 million from Congressman Nadler and the Federal Transportation Administration.

The beginnings of the new “gateway” entrance to the Island will also be visible in the clearance where the non-descript Building 148 stood when you last looked. By this time next year the whole area will be spanking new and different – cleared for trees, open space and signs to tell you where you are and what’s going on.

Incidentally, construction workers unearthed some history while working near the seawall this winter – a cannon ball! Where it came from, which cannon, which war, is unknown, but the NYPD came out to make sure it was not going to blow up.

A half-hour documentary about the Harbor School has won a 2012 New York EMMY, awarded by the New York branch of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. It begins where it all began, as an idea in Murray Fisher’s head, then proceeds to its founding with the support of Richard Kahan and the Urban Assembly, to the enlistment of Nate Dudley as principal, the opening in landlocked Bushwick in Brooklyn, the move to Governors Island in 2010 and the full range of classes indoors and outdoors, in and on the water. You can judge it yourself, click HERE to judge it for yourself.

The film’s title is “Classroom on the Water – the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School”. It was produced by NYC Media, the city’s official TV network, with support by the Adeona Foundation, which takes its made-up name from two Roman goddesses, one who protected children as they left home and the other who watched over their safe return. The foundation was founded four years ago by five friends “to make a difference” in the lives of disadvantaged children in New York.

My name is Todtiyana. I’m also a senior at Harbor. At first, in Bushwick, I wanted to transfer, but after freshman year I knew I wanted to stay. With classes such as intro to the harbor, marine tech and marine science I started to love the water and the environment. When we moved to the Island, I couldn’t believe it – a school in the middle of New York Harbor, no traffic and no one here besides us. With the school’s help I got an Alliance internship last summer, mastered my people skills, learned new things about the island and taught visitors about it while working on the harbor map on the island. Working in the office this spring, I’m helping plan activities we’ll have at the map and on City of Water Day.

While the Island lies quiet for the winter, big changes are afoot. Phase I of the Park and Public Space Master Plan and critical infrastructure improvements GIA has long advocated are about to become a reality with a groundbreaking next spring. GIA has been critical in moving these plans forward, with advocacy and building a constituency for the Island. But it is your support that makes our work possible. Generous contributions from people like you have enabled us to be a voice for the Island.  

It has been a great year, but there are better years ahead. It’s up to us to make it happen. Historic buildings need on-going stabilization and long-term tenants. The public programs that draw hundreds of thousands to the Island must be subsidized.

In hard economic times, funding for parks and historic preservation are often first to be cut. Competition for support is fierce.

It is more important than ever that we maintain the momentum that has made Governors Island into a new favorite playground for New York City, and to ensure its boundless potential. Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation to GIA.

Technically, the Alliance has been a corporation since 2002, when it launched a flotilla in the harbor to draw attention to the Island, and needed corporate status for insurance coverage against possible mishaps. (There were none.)

This creation of the original three incorporators – Albert Butzel, John Doswell and Rob Pirani – has now been reinvented with a newly reconstituted board of directors, new officers and a plan to break away from the R.P.A. Meanwhile, the two organizations continue to work together, R.P.A. in key roles as the Alliance’s fiscal agent and provider of staff support, not least the services of Rob Pirani as executive director.

Donna Milrod of Deutsche Bank, will still chair the Alliance’s board. There will be an executive committee and an advisory committee that includes representatives of like minded non-profits, such as New Yorkers for Parks, as well as Island partners FIGMENT and the New York Harbor School. Board members will have three-year terms, staggered so that the terms of roughly one-third will expire every year. High on the to-do list is an application to the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)3 status, to allow fund-raising as a non-profit. Click here for a list of all 27 board members.

Most of the wall needs repointing at least, and some of it needs replacement. There are also dozens of redundant “outfall” holes to be filled. These are holes in the seawall that drain accumulated water, mostly rain, into the harbor. They also cause problems in reverse, letting harbor water flow in, which is why they’re going to be filled.

And then there’s the ‘facelift’ installation of riprap along the western edge of the Island south of Division Road and the historic district, and all the way down and around the southern curve. Riprap means rocks, lots of them. Their function is to break the force of incoming waves, rather than letting each new wave score a direct hit. Also, riprap costs less than building a wall.

Lest anyone be tempted to climb out on the rocks, forget it. The guard rail that girds the full length of the Island’s perimeter will be there to deter adventurers.  Wave action generated by a long stretch of open water makes this western edge particularly unsafe.

But the wide surface area provided by the jumbled rocks,  and crevices in-between, make it ideal for all sorts of harbor creatures, from algae to mollusks to the fish they attract. The Harbor School has expressed interest in seeding the riprap with oysters and other marine species. The school already maintains a small oyster breeding project near the National Monument dock on Buttermilk Channel. Of course the whole project, including the restoration, is subject to state and federal approval.

Design for the complete seawall project is not yet final, and the official R.F.P. – the request for proposals by prospective contractors – will be issued in the spring.