St. George Terminal is a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

, and

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

transit center in the St. George neighborhood of

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It is located at the intersection of Richmond Terrace and Bay Street, near

Staten Island Borough Hall Staten Island Borough Hall is the primary municipal building for the borough of Staten Island in New York City. It is located at 10 Richmond Terrace, next to the Richmond County Courthouse and opposite the St. George Terminal of the Staten Islan ...

Richmond County Bank Ballpark The Staten Island University Hospital, Community Park (SIUH Community Park) is a baseball stadium located on the north-eastern tip of Staten Island. The ballpark is the home of the Staten Island FerryHawks, a member of the Atlantic League of ...

and Richmond County Supreme Court. St. George is one of the few remaining rail-boat connections in the United States.

History

A ferry and rail terminal at the St. George site (then called St. George's Landing) and an extension of the

Staten Island Railway The Staten Island Railway (SIR) is a rapid transit line in the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is owned by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA), a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, ...

(then called Staten Island Rapid Transit) north from Vanderbilt's Landing (today's Clifton Station) had been proposed in the 1870s by the owners of the Staten Island Railroad, George Law,

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

, and

Erastus Wiman Erastus Wiman (21 April 1834 – 9 February 1904) was a Canadian journalist and businessman who later moved to the United States. He is best known as a developer in the New York City borough of Staten Island. Biography Wiman was born in Churc ...

, to replace the various ferry sites on the north and east shores of Staten Island. St. George was selected due to it being the closest point from Staten Island to Manhattan, about a distance. The terminal and the local neighborhood were renamed to St. George in honor of Law, allegedly as a concession by Wiman in order to build the terminal and connecting tunnel on land owned by Law. An extension of the line to Tompkinsville was opened in 1884, and the tunnel between Tompkinsville and the terminal was constructed from 1884 to 1885. The ferry terminal was opened in early 1886, while the rail terminal opened in March of that year. The terminal's entrance building would be opened in 1897. The St. George rail terminal as originally built was constructed of wood, with no overhead obstructions. Adjacent to the station was a large freight terminal called the St. George Yard, where the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

's freight operations exchanged with

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...

s to other terminals in the

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in ...

. The B&O also operated the Staten Island Rapid Transit and ferries under a 99-year lease signed in 1885. A trolley terminal for the Staten Island Electric Company was formerly located above the ferryhouse. After the Municipal takeover of the Staten Island Ferry service, a new St. George Ferry Terminal Complex was designed by Carrère and Hastings and opened in 1905."Terminal Death Toll 3; Ferries Using Pier Six", Staten Island Advance, June 26, 1946. As part of this construction, the St. George tunnel was lengthened. It was built with two portals at its north end; one on the geographic east side currently in use by the Staten Island Railway, and an additional western portal intended for the

Staten Island Tunnel The Staten Island Tunnel is an abandoned, incomplete railway/subway tunnel in New York City. It was intended to connect railways on Staten Island (precursors to the modern-day Staten Island Railway) to the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York ...

, which would have traveled across

the Narrows __NOTOC__ The Narrows is the tidal strait separating the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It connects the Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay and forms the principal channel by which the Hudson Riv ...

and connected to the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...

BMT Fourth Avenue Line The BMT Fourth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line of the New York City Subway, mainly running under Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. The line is served by the D, N, and R at all times; the R typically runs local, while the D and N run express duri ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. In 1923 an excavation shaft for the Narrows tunnel was constructed at the south end of the terminal near Shore Road, though construction was halted in 1925. In 1930, civic leaders proposed a $2.5 million ferry terminal to replace the existing complex, with an underground train terminal below a 26-story office development. However, this plan was never carried out. On June 25, 1946, a large fire destroyed both the wooden ferry and rail terminals, killing three people. Full service was restored in July of that year. A new facility was built by the city, opening on June 8, 1951, which led the tunneling shaft to be filled in. The new facility cost $21 million. The former freight yard was replaced by a

New York City Department of Transportation The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is the agency of the government of New York City responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure. Ydanis Rodriguez is the Commissioner of the Depart ...

Municipal Parking Lot when the new terminal opened, and is now the site of

. The station served as the northern (eastern) terminus for the Staten Island Railway

North Shore Branch The North Shore Branch is an abandoned branch of the Staten Island Railway in New York City, which operated along Staten Island's North Shore from Saint George to Port Ivory. The line continues into New Jersey via the Arthur Kill Vertical Lif ...

to Arlington and Port Ivory until its closure in 1953. The line used tracks 11 and 12 on the north end of the terminal, which are currently unused. Plans for a renovation of the ferry terminal were announced in March 1997, and it received renovations in the 2000s as part of a $300 million renovation of several ferry terminals in the area, including the St. George and Whitehall Terminals. St. George's direct rail-boat connection is one of a few remaining in the United States.

Ferry terminal

Staten Island Ferry - St George Terminal (9739253316)

St. George Terminal is the southern terminal of the

Staten Island Ferry The Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry route operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. The ferry's single route runs through New York Harbor between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island, with ferry ...

; it runs only to Whitehall Terminal, on the southern tip of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

near

Battery Park The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to ...

. The Staten Island Ferry runs a 24-hour service between the terminals. Ferries usually run at 15-to-20-minute intervals during rush hours and every 30 minutes at other times. In January 2019,

NYC Ferry NYC Ferry is a public network of ferry routes in New York City operated by Hornblower Cruises. , there are six routes, as well as one seasonal route, connecting 25 ferry piers across all five boroughs. NYC Ferry has the largest passenger fleet ...

announced that it would start operating its St. George route in 2020. The route was originally supposed to run from the St. George Terminal to

Battery Park City Ferry Terminal The Battery Park City Ferry Terminal, is a passenger ferry terminal in Battery Park City, Manhattan, serving ferries along the Hudson River in New York City and northeastern New Jersey. It provides slips to ferries, water taxis, and sightseein ...

and

West Midtown Ferry Terminal The West Midtown Ferry Terminal is a passenger bus and ferry terminal serving ferries along the Hudson River in New York City and northeastern New Jersey. It is located at Piers 78 and 79 in Hudson River Park adjacent to the West Side Highway at ...

in Manhattan. However, due to concerns that the massive Staten Island Ferry boats and the small NYC Ferry craft might not be able to share a dock, the

New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a nonprofit corporation whose stated mission is to "leverage the city’s assets to create beneficial jobs that drive growth. This ensures equitable and sustainable development across al ...

announced in January 2020 that a NYC Ferry dock would instead be built close to the existing terminal, on the opposite side of

Empire Outlets Empire Outlets New York City is a retail complex in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City. Construction on Empire Outlets started in 2015, and the complex opened on May 15, 2019. Tentative plans called for 100 stores, but ...

closer to the Richmond County Bank Ballpark. NYC Ferry service began operating in August 2021.

Staten Island Railway station

The railroad station, which is known as the St. George station, opened on March 7, 1886. It is the northern terminus of the main line of the

, which operates

24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty ...

. It is also one of two stations that require the US$2.75 fare on entry and exit, the other being Tompkinsville. This station is

handicapped-accessible Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

. This station is situated in an open cut below street level, with a four-lane bus terminal and parking lot above it. The station has five active platforms and ten tracks, numbered 1 through 10 from east to west. All tracks end at

bumper block A buffer stop, bumper, bumping post, bumper block or stopblock (US), is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a physical section of track. The design of the buffer stop is dependent, in part, on the kind of couplings ...

s at their railroad northern (geographic eastern) ends. There is also a sixth island platform with two additional tracks (11 and 12) to the west (geographic north) no longer in revenue service, which historically served the Staten Island Rapid Transit's North Shore Branch. It currently acts as a passageway to the North Municipal Parking Field on Richmond Terrace, and towards

, one of two access points to this station. The track ballast is present through this construction zone. The mezzanine area has separate fare control areas: the east side for passengers entering, and the west side is for passengers exiting. Station booths and

MetroCard The MetroCard is a magnetic stripe card used for fare payment on transportation in the New York City area. It is the primary payment method for the New York City Subway (including the Staten Island Railway), New York City Transit buses and M ...

vending machines are located on both sides. Just before each platform bay are the old destination indicators to the left and right of each platform entrance, corresponding to each departing track. There are green bulbs above these displays that indicate where the next train will be leaving from. This station originally opened with nothing overhead; no bus bays and no ramps. It was the site of a 1946 fire that nearly destroyed the terminal. Just south of the station towards Tompkinsville, the Staten Island Railway runs in the system's only tunnel, known as the St. George Tunnel.

Station layout

New York City Bus

The

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

operates a number of bus routes in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Some of them are the direct descendants of streetcar lines (see

list of streetcar lines in Staten Island A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...

MTA New York City Transit 2015 Novabus LFS

Departures are given below by loading bay.

Nearby attractions

National Lighthouse Museum The National Lighthouse Museum is a museum in St. George, Staten Island, New York City, United States, that is dedicated to the history of lighthouses and their keepers. It officially opened in 2015. The museum is located within the former Fou ...

* St. George Theatre * Staten Island September 11 Memorial

References

External links

Staten Island current ferry fleet

Entrance from Google Maps Street View

Train at the terminal from Google Maps Street View

Platforms from Google Maps Street View
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George Terminal Transportation buildings and structures in Staten Island Ports and harbors of New York (state) Staten Island Ferry Staten Island Railway stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1884 Port of New York and New Jersey Transit centers in the United States Bus stations in New York City MTA Regional Bus Operations Ferry terminals in New York City 1884 establishments in New York (state) St. George, Staten Island Railway stations serving harbours and ports