May 31, 2007
Water Taxi starts Brooklyn-to-Governors Island route
Direct weekend water taxi service between Governors Island and Brooklyn will start Saturday, marking the first time in probably a century or so that public transportation will bridge the 400-foot-wide Buttermilk Channel separating the two islands.
The New York Water Taxi will add the stop to its Saturday and Sunday hop-on hop-off schedule, which is currently serving 11 other stops in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. The price will be $5 one-way for passengers boarding at Red Hook or South Street Seaport. From everywhere else, it will cost $10 one way, Water Taxi president Tom Fox told NewYorkology.
The Water Taxi service, consisting of two boats per hour heading in opposite directions, will supplement the hourly free weekend service offered from Lower Manhattan in conjunction with the National Park Service and the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corp.
The only other way to get to the island is by kayak, as the Downtown Boathouse has helped open the island's new kayak dock -- open on weekends only.
The former military base and its 92-acre historic district on Governors Island opens for the season this Saturday. All the events there are free, and plans are to keep things that way, said Leslie Koch, president of GIPEC. Among the exhibits on the island is a display of the long-term proposlas for use of Governors Island. (A June 20 public forum will solicit input on the plans, and then later, one of those design team will be chosen to develop a more detaied proposal.)
This summer, the island will host concerts, environmental lectures and Civil War re-enactments. This is the first year the island will be open Sundays, more of the island will be open than before and bikes will be allowed on the island (but no pets.)
The island, which was the site of the original colonial settlement of what became New York City, is peppered with old fortifications, canons, historical houses and expansive lawns and greenery. Food and drink options remian limited, but picnic lunches are encouraged.
In addition to the weekend options, the island is open to the public on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays but only if visitors take part in the free guided tour led by the national Park Service rangers. Only two boats a day depart Manhattan for those tours: 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
On weekends, visitors have the option of taking any of the six free ferries each day from Lower Manhattan, located just north of the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Those boats depart on the hour from 10 a.m. The last departure to Governors Island from Manhattan is 3 p.m. The ferries return every hour on the half hour from 10:30 a.m., with the final boat at 5 p.m.
The new Water Taxi schedule will be posted on the company's website by June 6, Fox said. But the inaugural route, leaving Red Hook at 10 a m. this Saturday, will be free until the boat reaches capacity. That same day, Red Hook is hosting its annual Waterfront Arts Festival.
Currently, the weekend water taxi route goes from W. 44th Street, to Chelsea Piers, Christopher Street, World Financial Center, Battery Park, Red Hook, South Street Seaport, Dumbo/Fulton Ferry Landing, Williamsburg, Hunters Point and E. 34th Street. The charge to any of those stops from Governors Island is $10 one way (except for the Red Hook and the South Street Seaport, which are only $5 treks.) Another option is to buy an all-day hop-on hop-off water taxi pass that allows unlimited use for the day, or $25 for an unlimited weekend pass. (But stil, each location only gets one boat per hour for each directions. So at Governors island, one boat will head up the East River every hour, and one will head for the Hudson every hour.)
The island, which is closer to Brooklyn than Manhattan, is legally part of Manhattan. But Wednesday's news conference announcing the route was rich with Brooklyn boosterism. The leader of that pack was borough president Marty Markowitz, who referrred to Governors Island as "Brooklyn's very own Santa Catalina or Nantucket to the west."
Earlier: Free folk music festival for Governors Island in July
Free summer concerts, events for Governors Island
Governors Island, still free, expands access for 2007
The bovine history of Brooklyn's Buttermilk Channel
May 31, 2007 06:48 AM in Cheap Stuff, History, Kids, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology, Transportology
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