Description
The Staten Island Ferry is the free boat that links Lower Manhattan with Staten Island, one of New York's five boroughs, across the harbor. Commuters use it every day, but for visitors it is one of the best sightseeing rides in the city, and it costs nothing.
The crossing covers 5.2 miles in about 25 minutes, from Whitehall Terminal at the southern tip of Manhattan to St. George Terminal on Staten Island. The boats run 24 hours a day, every day of the year, every 15 to 20 minutes at peak times and every 30 minutes otherwise.
What you see from the deck is the whole harbor: the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, Ellis Island, Governors Island, the Lower Manhattan skyline, the Jersey City towers and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The wide, open decks make it easy to take photos with the sea wind in your face.
Five cents: for most of the 19th and 20th centuries that was the fare, the same as the subway, and the ride was famous as the biggest bargain in town. Since 1997 it has cost nothing at all.
The route has a famous founder. In 1810 a 16-year-old from Staten Island, Cornelius Vanderbilt, spent the $100 he got for his birthday on a sailboat and began carrying passengers to the Battery. The other boatmen mockingly called him "Commodore". He became one of the richest men in the world.
Today the ferry is the world's busiest passenger-only ferry, with a single route and nine boats. Passengers who come from the subway or a bus at Whitehall can ride for free and transfer onward at St. George.
The ride is also popular on Saturday nights, when the skyline is lit. Hollywood loves it too: the harbor backdrop has made the ferry a popular spot for film shoots, and it has appeared in many movies.
The crossing covers 5.2 miles in about 25 minutes, from Whitehall Terminal at the southern tip of Manhattan to St. George Terminal on Staten Island. The boats run 24 hours a day, every day of the year, every 15 to 20 minutes at peak times and every 30 minutes otherwise.
What you see from the deck is the whole harbor: the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, Ellis Island, Governors Island, the Lower Manhattan skyline, the Jersey City towers and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The wide, open decks make it easy to take photos with the sea wind in your face.
Five cents: for most of the 19th and 20th centuries that was the fare, the same as the subway, and the ride was famous as the biggest bargain in town. Since 1997 it has cost nothing at all.
The route has a famous founder. In 1810 a 16-year-old from Staten Island, Cornelius Vanderbilt, spent the $100 he got for his birthday on a sailboat and began carrying passengers to the Battery. The other boatmen mockingly called him "Commodore". He became one of the richest men in the world.
Today the ferry is the world's busiest passenger-only ferry, with a single route and nine boats. Passengers who come from the subway or a bus at Whitehall can ride for free and transfer onward at St. George.
The ride is also popular on Saturday nights, when the skyline is lit. Hollywood loves it too: the harbor backdrop has made the ferry a popular spot for film shoots, and it has appeared in many movies.