Castle Clinton

When I had a friend come from out of town this past September we went to battery park. I thought she would enjoy the view of the Statue of Liberty and the monuments in the park. We did enjoy walking all over the park. We went in to the Castle to see what we could see. It is nothing much. My one thrill was a seat to sit and rest while she retired to the restroom! So let this be a warning, if you’re looking for a memorable experience other than a historic spot in the park to rest, don’t look here.

I’d not realized that Cake Clinton was right there in Battery Park. We made our way to the structure after some pics at the Statue of Liberty. The ferry leaves from Castle Clinton, which is also known as Castle Garden. Immigrants came through Castle Clinton to the USA from the mid– to late-​19^th century, when Ellis Island opened, including some of my ancestors. There is a fair amount of historical information and a gift shop.
The whole structure and exhibit area takes about 10 minutes to experience. I’d like to see them do something more with it, even if they start charging.

I enjoyed the exhibit here.
1) It is a small exhibit but it is free and worth a visit if you are around the area.
2) The fort is very historic in itself.
3) The structure is cool.

A National Park? As you can see fromthe reviews actuallt of castle Clinton, it’s a pathetic joke, merely a holding pen for the SoL and Ellis Island at this point. It’s remarkably they closed it for a while to reveal this…

Over the years Castle Clinton has been many things.
Initially CC was known as West Battery and was built to help defend NY Harbor. Construction of the sandstone structure was completed in 1811 and the name changed to Castle Clinton in 1815 after NYC Mayor DeWitt Clinton.
It never saw any action from The War of 1812 and the Army abandoned it in 1821. In 1824 the structure got a new name in Castle Garden and a new purpose of beer garden, exhibition hall, theatre and opera house.
In 1855 it became the official immigration processing facility for NY State (The first such entity in US history) and over the next thirty-​five years saw over eight million immigrants processed until the Federal Government took over the job in 1890.
In 1896 the Castle again had new life as the New York Aquarium until 1941 when Park Commissioner Robert Moses closed it down out of spite when he lost a battle to build a Battery-​Brooklyn Bridge which would have demolished CC and all of Battery Park.
Finally in 1950 NY State ceded ownership of the structure to the Federal Government and in 1975 after being fully renovated CC was reopened and today serves as the NY departure point for The Statue of Liberty which nets The Castle around three million visitors a year.
Now with the history lesson out of the way let’s talk about practicalities. Compared to facilities and loading area over in NJ for The Statue this place is a dump. Especially on weekends the rangers here are very overwhelmed as their job is not to interpret or impart the history of the structure to you because their only job is 100% good ol’ fashioned crowd control.
People trying to queue up in every possible angle, ropes & chains are constantly getting reworked and what it equals is a sea of humanity with rangers yelling to move up or move this way or not to push, etc.
The building does have a very small «museum» which consists of three dopey dioramas and a mishmashed collection of I guess dead local sea life. From a Junior Ranger Program prospective, CC does have one but it’s a poorly copied small booklet without a staple and Ranger Steve was more than happy/​too busy to wait around so he gave the kids the badges with the booklets and off he went.
To me the building is not designed to do what it is currently doing, I question whether it should even be under the NPS umbrella and 99% of the people who come here have no clue about the history of the building/​nor do they care and even if they wanted to know there’s no much here to tell them about it.

This is sad. Despite its historical value, Castle Clinton is nothing but a ferry booth for the Statue of Liberty and a restroom facility inside its fort walls. When I asked the park ranger if we could explore the Castle without the intent of buying a ferry ticket, he gave us a strange look. After going inside, we understood why he gave us a strange look: we were essentially asking to explore a ticket booth.
Castle Clinton was one of the forts that was built to deter the blockading British navy to actually attack New York during the War of 1812. After that, the retired fort became an immigration station before it was replaced Ellis Island when the immigration population drastically increased. Afterward, Castle Clinton continued to play many roles, including the former New York aquarium! You will see why it’s crazy that Castle Clinton used to be an aquarium if you see the retired fort in person.
Can you see why it’s sad that despite all the roles this monument has played, it is nothing but a ticket booth now? If you are already in Battery Park or are on the way to the Statue Cruise, Castle Clinton is worth checking out for a minute. Otherwise, it’s nothing that you should go out of your way for.

This Battery Park location probably gets most of its traffic from the Statue Cruises ticket booth on site. Second is probably the restrooms. It’s kind of a shame, because this historic site deserves some attention all its own. Next time you’re rushing between Point A and Point B, stop and peruse what’s here … it’s worth at least a few minutes to explore what so many miss as they just dash on by.

In the United States of America there are roughly 320 million people. That’s a lot. And yet, we seem to elect or seriously consider only two families. The Bushes, whom I’ll ignore for this diatribe and the Clintons. William Jefferson ‘Bubba’ Clinton is our guy. Hillary is gonna run in 2016. Chelsea is also waiting in the wings. But I’m no fan of dynastic precedence. We need new people to run for America’s highest office. Although, that’s not what I should be writing about. Castle Clinton is a stellar fort. Named for the one, true Clinton clan. They are mostly forgotten today. In favor of Bill’s crew, the name «Clinton» conjures oval office escapades and fine public speaking. How quickly we forget. Named for DeWitt Clinton, governor of the empire state, thrice mayor of the city, and like Hillary, even senator. His father James Clinton was a colonial mensch, fighting in both the French & Indian War and the Revolution. He cut his teeth during the Saratoga campaign. Jim’s brother was George Clinton, longest serving governor in the nation’s history and vice president under Tommy Jefferson and Jimmy Madison. New Yorkers through and through.
While Secretary Clinton successfully ran for senate in New York and Bill moved up to Harlem, I know carpet bagging when I see it. Because everyone knows that there is only one set of authentic New York Clintons.

I have only been here as part of the NY Classical Theater. That was a pretty cool experience. I went to see The Tempest. The performance started and ended in the courtyard of the Castle, but traveled, with audience in tow, throughout the rest of Battery Park as the scenes changed. It was a unique performance and venue.

This is a really neat old building. Definitely read the boards to gain full historical knowledge, otherwise it’s pretty much just a pile of bricks, though a pretty pile, in a pretty park.
Avoid the lines to the ferries, they can get pretty long.

Likes: It’s like, the remnants of a wall of a castle.
Dislikes: It’s like, the remnants of a wall of a castle.
Tips: Walk through Battery Park and purchase your Ellis Island/​Statue of Liberty ferry tickets here for $ 17, audio tour included.

i worked on wall st for almost a decade and visited battery park a number of times, but never noticed this landmark! the actual museum (indoors) is very small, and has just a few display windows, but once you walk into the circular courtyard, you will see the beauty of this site, which used to house concerts. in present day, tourists and locals alike come to purchase tickets for the ferry to ellis island and the statue of liberty.

After purchasing our tickets to Ellis/​Liberty Islands, we had to come to Castle Clinton to pick up our tickets at Will Call. They do have bathroom facilities in here. This circular sandstone battery was erected to protect from enemy fleets in the War of 1812 according to the brochure. One of 5 forts to protect the NY harbor and named after Gov DeWitt Clinton in 1817 who was mayor when it was named after him. The surrounding area was joined to the mainland by landfill to become Battery Park, where you come to catch the ferries to Ellis/​Liberty Islands.
Notably:
1. Castle Garden is the other name, was demolished 1940’s for a tunnel project
2. Obtained national monument status 1946
3. Restored 1970’s
4. Now part of the National Park Service
one of over 390 parks in the NPS. An old illustration on the brochure shows it was just a castle suspended above water with a walking bridge to the park at the southern tip of Manhattan.
They did a pretty good job with the landfill. The castle interior feels like being in the middle of a rodeo corral or Roman coliseum. It has no roof but used to and Jenny Lind, the Swedish opera singer debut her in 1850 with 6,000 audience. I remember reading about her in grammar school.
5. It was an immigration center from 1855 – 1890, an aquarium from 1896 – 1941.

Interesting site. I didn’t realize this was where you catch the Ellis Island/​Statue of Liberty ferry. I just came here, so I would’ve liked more about Castle Clinton. But if you are just coming here to see it, there are no lines or anything to wait on.

Very cool place. Awesome history in the shadows of FiDi.
Most people know this only as the place where you catch the ferry to the islands, but this place has some amazing history in it’s own right.
Plan an extra hour to check it out

When you’re a New Yorker, you don’t usually visit National Monuments once you’ve left elementary school.
My first thought upon entering the fort was «Damn, this place is much smaller than I remembered. How the hayell are they going to fit 1200 people in here?
Somehow, it worked. I enjoyed Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra inside the walls of the monument, sky framed by towering sky scrapers. It was quite beautiful, and a very different experience. The combination of old New York (this fortress built to keep da Brits OUT) and the New York of today (the Brooklyn afrobeat band) was really fascinating!

This was a fort at one time and in the 1800s, it was used as an immigration facility pre dating Ellis Island.
Today, it’s the starting point for trips to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
They have a couple of interesting exhibits, but I would like to have learned more about the history of the building besides the couple of exhibits they had.
I also think that having the ticket booths for the tours to Liberty and Ellis Island is both good and bad. It’s good because it forces people to see the fort, but bad because if you go to see just the fort (like the first time I went there), it’s crowded with people going to the ferries.

Per Ranger Jim, Castle Clinton made way for many immigrants back in the 1800’s. It was also the venue of many music artists back in the 1850’s. To close out the summer jazz series, Terence Blanchard, musician/​composer and winner of 3 Grammys with trumpet in hand, performed w/​his band here last night. Blanchard wrote music for Spike Lee’s Inside Man and is also working on upcoming projects for Spike. Blanchard also wrote music for Hurricane Katrina relief, as he hails from New Orleans. I was shocked to learn that 3 out of his other 4 band members wrote music. (saxophonist Brice Winston [Tucson], bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Kendrick Scott [Houston]). Their latest member, pianist Aaron Parks [Cuba], who looked quite young, was the only one that didn’t write music. One familiar tune he played was Sting’s ‘A Thousand Years’.
P. S. At the venue, the MC mentioned that Blanchard has 105,000 results on Google. More like 309,000, but who’s counting =)
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