The Battery
City Park · New York, New York
Twenty-five acres at the southern tip of Manhattan, named for the artillery battery the Dutch mounted here in the 1620s to defend New Amsterdam. ⚠ ALL OF IT IS LANDFILL — the original shoreline ran along State Street, and everything seaward of that was made. It is the departure point for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferries and it holds CASTLE CLINTON, a fort of 1811 that later processed eight million immigrants.
State Street at Battery Place, New York, New York, 10004, United States
FREE and open daily, generally from early morning until around midnight, with the gardens and paths open at all times. ⚠ CASTLE CLINTON, inside the park, is a free National Park Service site with its own shorter hours and houses the STATUE OF LIBERTY FERRY TICKET OFFICE. ⚠ THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY, at the park's eastern edge, IS FREE, RUNS 24 HOURS and passes the Statue of Liberty without stopping — it is a different boat from the paid Statue ferry and people confuse them daily. The SeaGlass Carousel charges a small fee and keeps seasonal hours.