Staten Island Ferry Terminal

Whitehall Terminal
Main entrance
Location	4 South Street New York, NY 10004 United States
Coordinates	40°42′09″N 74°00′46″W / 40.702472°N 74.012833°W / 40.702472; -74.012833Coordinates: 40°42′09″N 74°00′46″W / 40.702472°N 74.012833°W / 40.702472; -74.012833
Operated by	New York City Department of Transportation
Line(s)	Staten Island Ferry
Connections	NYC Subway: at South Ferry–Whitehall at Bowling Green at Broad Street NYCT Bus: M5, M15, M15 SBS, M20
Construction
Disabled access
History
Opened	1908–9
Rebuilt	2005
Services
Preceding station   Staten Island Ferry   Following station Terminus Staten Island Ferry St. George Terminal Terminus

The Staten Island Ferry's Whitehall Terminal, located at 4 South Street, at the corner of Whitehall Street, is the terminal in the South Ferry area of Lower Manhattan used by the Staten Island Ferry, which connects the two island boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island in New York City. It was completely renovated and rededicated in February 2005 as a major integrated transportation hub for the ferry, buses, subways, taxis, and bicycle lanes. The ferry travels between the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan and the St. George Terminal in Staten Island.

Originally, before the terminal was first built, ferry service was provided as early as the 1700s by individuals (and later private companies) with their own boats, but a major ferry accident on June 14, 1901 which sunk one ferry and killed four passengers was used by the city as a justification for their acquisition of the Staten Island Ferry. The City subsequently banned other operators from using the Terminal so ferries from Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City were re-routed to Liberty Street Ferry Terminal in lower Manhattan.

The original Whitehall Terminal, called the "Whitehall Street Ferry Terminal," served Brooklyn, Governors Island, Staten Island, and Jersey City, for passengers who traveled mainly by a system of elevated trains (the "els"). The ferry began operating under the municipal authority of the Department of Docks and Ferries on October 25, 1905, seven years after the five boroughs were consolidated into New York City. The "Municipal Ferry Terminal" was erected in 1906–9, during the administration of Mayor George McClellan, and designed by the architectural firm of Walker and Morris. Two primary ferry terminal buildings were designed in a Beaux-Arts style. One set was opened in 1906 for the two slips of the Staten Island Ferry with direct links to the Manhattan Elevated terminal platforms. The adjoining terminal was completed by 1909 in an identical style for the South Brooklyn Ferry routes and would become the Battery Maritime Building. However, as subways replaced the els, and cars began to travel through an increasing number of bridges and tunnels such as the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, a new expanded Whitehall Street terminal facility was designed by the firm of Roberts & Schaefer for what were now three Staten Island Ferry slips and was completed in 1956 using some of the steel framework of the original 1906 building.

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Wikipedia