Liberty Island

Coordinates: 40.689848° N 74.045298° W

Liberty Island

Liberty Island, formerly called Bedloe's Island, is a small uninhabited island in Upper New York Bay in the United States, best known as the location of the Statue of Liberty. The name Liberty Island has been in use since the early 20th century, although the name was not officially changed until 1956. Before the Statue of Liberty, Bedloe's Island was the home to Fort Wood, an eleven pointed star-shaped battery made of granite. Because of this, its nickname was "Star Fort".

The island is the property of the federal government and is operated by the National Park Service. It is accessible to the public only by ferry, either from Battery Park in Manhattan or Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. It is separated from nearby Ellis Island by approximately 1 mi (1.6 km).

Liberty Island is 2000 feet (600 m) from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. By comparison it is 1-5/8 statute miles (2.6 kilometers) from Battery Park in Manhattan, this makes Liberty Island much closer to Jersey City, New Jersey than New York City. The island has a land area of 59,558 square meters, or 14.717 acres, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Since September 11, 2001, the island is guarded by around-the-clock patrols of the United States Coast Guard.

Relationship to New York and New Jersey

Panorama from Liberty Island, with views of Manhattan and Jersey City.

Liberty Island is within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of New York, a status that was established in 1664, reaffirmed in 1834, and which has never been officially disputed. The island has been owned by the federal government since 1800.

The belief that Liberty Island is "in" New Jersey could be a mistaken inference from these facts:

• Liberty Island's proximity to Jersey City;
• its appearance on maps on the New Jersey side of the state line;
• New Jersey's victory in a 1998 lawsuit with New York over the ownership of parts of Ellis Island.
• Liberty Island is "geographically" within New Jersey's borders. However, New Jersey has never claimed any legal rights to the dry land of Liberty Island.
• New Jersey provides all the utilities to both Ellis Island and Liberty Island, such as electricity, water, and sewage

The Statue of Liberty itself is claimed as a symbol by both New York and New Jersey. It was featured on New York State's license plates from 1986 through 2000 and on a special New Jersey license plate celebrating Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The Statue is also seen on the New York State Quarter.

It is also indisputable that maps draw the boundary between New Jersey and New York in the center of the Hudson River, with Liberty Island situated well on the New Jersey side of the line. The State of New Jersey in fact does retain the riparian rights to all the submerged land surrounding the statue, extending eastward to the boundary line. Perhaps a case can be made for language to the effect that Liberty Island is "geographically" within New Jersey's borders. But New Jersey has never claimed any legal rights to the dry land of Liberty Island.

The islands of New York harbor have been part of New York since the issuance in 1664 of the colonial charter that created New Jersey (see charter text). This charter stated that New Jersey "bounded by the Hudson River" rather than from the middle channel, as was common in other colonial charters. That is, as everyone understood at the time, the New York-New Jersey border did not go through the center of the river channel as one might naturally assume. An 1834 compact between New York and New Jersey, which primarily concerned the status of Staten Island, set the boundary line between the States as the middle of the Hudson River but reaffirmed that Staten Island and the other islands belonged to New York.

The Ellis Island lawsuit concerned a special situation. Ellis Island is 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. (This proved impractical to administer and New Jersey and New York subsequently agreed to share jurisdiction of the entire island). This special situation only applies to Ellis Island and part of Shooter's Island. The natural islands such as Staten Island, Liberty Island, and Prall's Island were not and are not in dispute.

New Jersey provides all the utilities to both Ellis Island and Liberty Island, such as electricity, water, and sewage.

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," "near New York City," and "on the Hudson" are acceptable.^[1]

According to the USGS, Liberty Island is located in New York's 8th Congressional District.

See also: Geography and environment of New York City

References

1. ^ Questions and Answers for New Pilot Naturalization Exam. U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (2006-11-30). Retrieved on 2006-12-01.

• Liberty Island: Block Group 9, Census Tract 1, New York County, United States Census Bureau

See also

• Statue of Liberty
• The Statue of Liberty in popular culture

External links

• Liberty Island Aerial View
• National Park Service Bedloe's Island web site
• National Park Service's Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island site
• Statue of Liberty Lighthouse Notes on territorial history and status of Liberty island

Islands of New York City

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