Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal
The Whitehall Terminal is a ferry terminal in the South Ferry section of Lower Manhattan, New York City, at the corner of South Street and Whitehall Street. It is used by the Staten Island Ferry, which connects the island boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island. The Whitehall Terminal is one of the ferry's two terminals, the other being St. George Terminal on Staten Island.
The Whitehall Terminal opened in 1903 as a terminal for municipal ferry operations. It was originally designed nearly identically to the Battery Maritime Building; a connector between the two terminals was planned but never built. The Whitehall Terminal was renovated from 1953 to 1956 at a cost of $3 million, but it had deteriorated by the 1980s. It was gutted by a fire in 1991. The terminal was completely rebuilt and reopened in February 2005 as a major integrated transportation hub.
History
Before the Whitehall Terminal was built, ferry service in New York Harbor was provided as early as the 1700s by individuals with their own boats. This included a ferry service from South Ferry, Manhattan, to St. George, Staten Island, which started operating in 1816. The route was operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Staten Island Railway after 1860. After four passengers died when a Staten Island ferry sank in 1901, New York City officials used the incident as a justification for their acquisition of the ferry lines to Staten Island. The B&O refused to sell their terminals to the city, prompting municipal officials to announce in 1904 that they would acquire the sites through eminent domain.Municipal Ferry Terminal
Ferry lines from Manhattan to Staten Island began operating under the municipal authority of the Department of Docks and Ferries on October 25, 1905, seven years after the City of Greater New York was established. New Jersey ferries were banned from South Ferry, so ferries from Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City were re-routed to the Liberty Street Ferry Terminal in lower Manhattan. The following year, the city government acquired another route, which ran from South Ferry to 39th Street in South Brooklyn. Under mayor George McClellan, the city sought to build a new terminal for both routes. The existing terminals at South Ferry were independently operated, with two slips for ferries to Staten Island and two slips for ferries to Brooklyn. The city also sought to operate a route from South Ferry to Stapleton, Staten Island.Designed by the architectural firm of Walker and Morris, the Whitehall Street Ferry Terminal was to have room for seven slips. Slips 1 and 2 would serve municipal ferries to St. George Terminal on Staten Island. Slips 5, 6, and 7 of the still-extant South Street Ferry Terminal were served by municipal ferries traveling to 39th Street in Brooklyn. Slips 3 and 4 were to serve ferries from both Staten Island and South Brooklyn. The three sections were designed to be independent of each other but visually identical in style. The design of the structures was inspired by the Exposition Universelle. The original seven-slip complex was never completed as designed. The Staten Island and Brooklyn municipal ferry terminals were separated by the Union Ferry Company's smaller terminal, which was used for their Brooklyn routes to Atlantic Avenue and Hamilton Avenue. The second story had a direct connection to the South Ferry elevated train station, the Union Ferry Terminal, and the municipal ferry terminal to Brooklyn.
Plans for the terminal were approved by the city's Municipal Art Commission in July 1906. The westernmost Staten Island ferry slip burned down in December 1906, along with several temporary buildings nearby. Walker and Morris's plans were approved in February 1907, and a budget of $1.75 million was allotted to the work. Work started on the Brooklyn ferry slips first, followed by the Staten Island ferry slips in 1908. As built, the Staten Island Ferry terminal occupied slips 1 through 2. The building was completed by 1909. Ferry service from the Whitehall Terminal to Stapleton commenced on May 27, 1909.
Starting in 1914, ferry passengers could transfer to New York Railways Company streetcars at the Whitehall Terminal for free, but this privilege was canceled in 1919. In July of that year, a fire on the South Ferry elevated station damaged slips 1 and 2. The city took over the Atlantic and Hamilton Avenue ferry lines from the Union Ferry Company in 1922. As part of the takeover, the two ferry lines were relocated from Union Ferry's Whitehall Street slips to the municipally operated South Street ferry slips. The old ferryhouse and slips 3 and 4 were then replaced with a utilitarian structure, which became slip 3 of the Staten Island Ferry terminal.
Second terminal
After World War II, subways replaced the els, and cars began to travel through bridges and tunnels such as the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. By the early 1950s, the St. George–Whitehall and St. George–69th Street, Bay Ridge ferries were the only routes that still operated as part of the city's once-extensive ferry network.Design and construction
In 1951, Manhattan borough president Robert F. Wagner Jr. asked the New York City Planning Commission to provide $132,000 for a footbridge between the terminal and Battery Park, crossing over West Street. The following August, the New York City Board of Estimate awarded a contract to Roberts & Schaefer for a renovation of the terminal. New York City Department of Marine and Aviation consulting engineer John M. Buckley, chief engineer Lewis H. Radbage, and deputy chief engineer Emil A. Verpillot were also involved in the construction of the new terminal. Marine and Aviation commissioner Edward F. Cavanagh Jr. announced plans for the terminal in January 1953. The existing ground-level waiting room would be relocated, and the second-story waiting room would be linked with the Battery Maritime Building. The renovated terminal would allow inbound and outbound pedestrian and vehicular traffic to be segregated. The Department of Marine and Aviation's ferry bureau, which had been housed on Whitehall Terminal's upper stories, relocated to St. George in January 1954. By the end of that year, the new slips had been completed, and work had started on the building itself.The second terminal reused some of the original 1906 building's steel framework, but the older building was otherwise completely demolished. Escalators led from the street to the waiting room, which could accommodate 3,200 people. There was a secondary waiting room in an adjacent building. Above the waiting room was a semicircular glass structure with 24 turnstiles. Ramps outside the terminal led to Battery Park. The second terminal contained three slips, with loading docks on two levels; pedestrians used the upper level, while vehicles used the lower level. Underneath the terminal were caissons that descended to the underlying bedrock, passing within of the New York City Subway tunnels under the building.
Although the majority of ferry passengers transferred to the nearby South Ferry subway station after departing Whitehall Terminal, the New York City Transit Authority had no plans to upgrade the station, which was frequently overcrowded because of its small capacity. Furthermore, the Department of Marine and Aviation did not construct any direct connection between the new terminal and the subway station. The new terminal ultimately cost $2.8 million and opened on July 24, 1956. The new terminal had a purely functional design. The New York Times described it as a "squat, washed-out green hulk in which function vanquished form"; the American Institute of Architects called it "the world's most banal portal of joy." The Whitehall Terminal's renovation was the first part of urban planner Robert Moses's proposal to redevelop the area around South Ferry.
Operation
The NYCTA decided in early 1959 to overhaul the adjacent South Ferry subway station, adding a wide stairway that connected with one of the terminal's entrance ramps. The St. George–Whitehall ferry route continued to operate after the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge opened in 1964, as the bridge's opening was expected to spur an influx of residents to Staten Island. By 1967, the St. George–Whitehall route was the sole remaining ferry route in New York City. As early as 1972, city officials proposed replacing the St. George and Whitehall terminals with facilities that contained six slips, although officials did not plan to rebuild either terminal until 2000. After hundreds of ferry passengers were injured in a 1978 ferry collision, the Department of Marine Aviation upgraded the terminal's fog-lighting system.In January 1980, city officials began adding elevators and escalators to the Whitehall Terminal as part of a $5.75 million modernization program for the Staten Island Ferry. The federal government funded about 75 percent of the project's cost, while the state paid 20 percent and the city paid 5 percent. As part of the renovation, officials planned to add stores to the Whitehall Terminal. They relocated turnstiles and demolished a concession stand at the center of the terminal, allowing visitors to shop without having to pay fares. City officials formally opened the first store in the terminal, a cookie shop, in June 1981. The city government announced plans in 1985 to sell the Whitehall Terminal as part of the South Ferry Plaza project. The Whitehall Terminal would be replaced, and the developer would restore the adjacent Battery Maritime Building, an official city landmark that could not be demolished. City officials received proposals from seven developers in August 1985. An eighth plan had been submitted by the end of that year.
The Zeckendorf Company was selected in July 1986 to develop a 60-story tower above the Whitehall Terminal at a cost of about $400 million. The city government would retain ownership of the terminals and lease the site to Zeckendorf for 99 years. Several city agencies had to approve the plans for South Ferry Plaza, so construction could not start for another two years. KG Land was also a partner in the development project. The terminal was to be extended into New York Harbor, and new pilings would be constructed to support the weight of the office tower. After the Williamsburg Bridge was closed for emergency repairs in April 1988, ferries to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, were temporarily operated from Whitehall Terminal. The South Ferry Plaza plan had stalled by late 1990. South Ferry Plaza was canceled in January 1991 due to a decline in the real estate market, and the terminal's renovation was delayed as a result.