Staten Island

Staten Island or Staten Island is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the state of New York, USA). Located in the southwestern part of the city, the borough is separated from New Jersey by Arthur Kill and Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 as of the 2020 census, Staten Island is the least populated municipality but the third largest in area at 152 km².

Home to the indigenous Lenape people, the island was colonized by Dutch settlers in the 17th century. It was one of the original 12 counties of New York State. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898. It was formally known as the Town of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Staten Island Township. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten district" by residents who feel abandoned by the city government.

The North Shore, especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Clifton and Stapleton, is the most urban area on the island. It contains the designated St. George Historic District and the St. Paul's Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian homes. On the east coast is the FDR Boardwalk, which at 4 km is the fourth longest boardwalk in the world. South Shore, site of the 19th century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement XVII, developed rapidly from the 1960s and 1970s and is now mainly suburban. West Shore is the least populated and most industrial part of the island.

Motorized traffic can reach the borough from Brooklyn via the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and from New Jersey via the Outerbridge Crossing, the Goethals Bridge and the Bayonne Bridge. Staten Island is served by Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus lines and an MTA rapid transit line, the Staten Island Railroad, which runs from the ferry terminal in St. George to Tottenville. Staten Island is the only borough not connected to the New York subway system. The free Staten Island Ferry connects the borough to Manhattan via New York Harbor. It offers views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Lower Manhattan.

History

Natives

As in much of North America, human settlements appeared quite quickly after the retreat of the ice sheet. Archaeologists have recovered tools that demonstrate the presence of the Clovis culture from approximately 14,000 years ago. This evidence was discovered in 1917 in the Charleston section of the island. Several Clovis artifacts have since been discovered on Mobil Oil company properties.

The island was probably abandoned later, possibly due to the extirpation of large mammals on the island. Evidence of the first permanent Native American settlements and agriculture is believed to date back about 5,000 years, although evidence of early archaic housing has been found in multiple locations on the island.

The Rossville points are distinct arrowheads that define a Native American cultural period from the Archaic Period to the Woodland Period, dating from around 1500 to 100 BC. They are named after the Rossville section of Staten Island, where they were first found near the old Rossville Post Office building.

At the time of European contact, the island was inhabited by the Raritan band of the Unami division of the Lenape. In Lenape, one of the Algonquian languages, Staten Island was called Aquehonga Manacknong, which means "to the place of the bad forests&# 34;, or Eghquhous, meaning "the bad forest". The area was part of the Lenape homeland known as lenapehoking. Later, English settlers called the Lenape "Delaware" because they inhabited both banks of what the English called the Delaware River.

The island was lined with Native American pedestrian trails, one of which followed the south side of the ridge near the course of present-day Richmond and Amboy roads. The Lenape did not live in fixed camps, but moved seasonally, using slash-and-burn agriculture. Shellfish were a staple of their diet, including the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) abundant in waterways throughout the present-day New York City region. Evidence of their habitation can still be seen in shell middens along the coast in the Tottenville section, where oyster shells larger than 30 cm are sometimes found.

Burial Ridge, a Lenape cemetery on a bluff overlooking Raritan Bay in Tottenville, is the largest pre-European cemetery in New York City. Bodies have been reported unearthed at Burial Ridge from 1858 onwards. After conducting independent research, which included exhumations, ethnologist and archaeologist George H. Pepper was hired in 1895 to conduct paid archaeological research at Burial Ridge by the American Museum of Natural History. The cemetery today is unmarked and lies within Conference House Park.

European settlement

The first recorded European contact on the island was in 1520 by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who sailed through The Narrows on the ship La Dauphine and anchored overnight.

The Dutch did not establish a permanent settlement in Staaten Eylandt for many decades. Its name derives from the Staten Generaal, the parliament of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. From 1639 to 1655, Cornelis Melyn and David de Vries made three separate attempts to establish one there, but each time the settlement was destroyed in conflicts between the Dutch and the local tribe. In 1661, the first permanent Dutch settlement was established in < i lang="nl" title="Dutch language text">Oude Dorp (Dutch for "Old Village") by a small group of Dutch, Walloon and French Huguenot families, just next to south of the Narrows, near South Beach. Many French Huguenots had gone to the Netherlands as refugees from the religious wars in France, suffering persecution for their Protestant faith, and some joined the emigration to New Netherland. At one time, almost a third of the island's residents spoke French. The last vestige of Oude Dorp is the name of the current Old Town neighborhood adjacent to Old Town Road.

Staten Island was not spared from the bloodshed that culminated in the Kieft War. In the summer of 1641 and 1642, native tribes razed Old Town.

Richmond County

At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, the Dutch ceded New Holland to England in the Treaty of Breda, and the Dutch Staaten Eylandt, anglicized as "Staten Island", became part of the new English colony of New York.

In 1670, Native Americans ceded all claims to Staten Island to the English in a deed to Governor Francis Lovelace. In 1671, to encourage the expansion of Dutch settlements, the English re-surveyed Oude Dorp. (which became known as 'Old City') and expanded the lots along the coast to the south. These lots were settled mainly by Dutch families and became known as Nieuwe Dorp (meaning 'New Town'), which more It was later anglicized as New Dorp.

Captain Christopher Billopp, after years of distinguished service in the Royal Navy, arrived in America in 1674 in command of a company of infantry. The following year, he settled in Staten Island, where he was granted a patent for 3.8 km² of land. According to one version of an oft-repeated apocryphal tale, Captain Billopp's seamanship secured Staten Island to New York, rather than New Jersey: the island would belong to New York if the captain could circumnavigate it in a day, which which He did. This story is most likely not true, due to conflicting information about how long it took Christopher Billopp to complete the race and whether or not he received a personal award. Mayor Michael Bloomberg perpetuated the myth by referring to it at a press conference in Brooklyn on February 20, 2007. However, reliable historical documentation of the event is extremely scarce and most historians conclude that it is completely apocryphal. In 2007, The New York Times addressed the topic in a news article, which concluded that this event was highly embellished over the years and almost certainly originated in local folklore.

In 1683, the colony of New York was divided into ten counties. As part of this process, Staten Island, as well as several smaller neighboring islands, were designated as Richmond County. The name derives from the title of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, illegitimate son of King Charles II.

In 1687 and 1688, the English divided the island into four administrative divisions based on natural features: the 21 km² of colonial governor Thomas Dongan's manor estate in the northeastern hills known as "Manor or Manor of Cassiltown" #34;, along with the North, South and West divisions. These divisions later became the four towns of Castleton, Northfield, Southfield and Westfield. In 1698, the population was 727.

The government granted land patents in 80-acre rectangular blocks, with the most desirable lands along the coastline and inland waterways. By 1708, the entire island had been divided in this way, creating 166 small farms and two large manor estates, the Dongan estate and a 6 km² plot at the southwestern end of the island belonging to Christopher Billopp.

The first county seat was established at New Dorp in what was then called Stony Brook. In 1729, the county seat was moved to the town of Richmond Town, located at the head of the Fresh Kills, near the center of the island. By 1771, the island's population had increased to 2,847.

The 18th century and the Revolution of the Thirteen Colonies

Staten Islanders were solid supporters of the Crown, and the island played an important role in the American War of Independence. General George Washington once called the islanders 'our most inveterate enemies.'

As support for independence spread through the colonies, the island's residents were so disinterested that they did not send representatives to the First Continental Congress, the only New York county that did not send anyone. This had economic repercussions in the months until 1776, when New Jersey towns such as Elizabethport, Woodbridge, and Dover instituted boycotts of business with the islanders.

On March 17, 1776, British forces under William Howe evacuated Boston and sailed for Halifax. From Halifax, Howe prepared to attack New York City, which then consisted entirely of the southern tip of Manhattan Island. General George Washington led the entire Continental Army to New York City in anticipation of the British attack. Howe used the strategic location of Staten Island as a staging ground for the invasion.

More than 140 British ships arrived during the summer of 1776 and anchored off the coast of Staten Island at the entrance to New York Harbor. British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries numbered about 30,000. Howe established his headquarters in New Dorp at the Rose and Crown Tavern, near the junction of present-day New Dorp Lane and Richmond Road. There representatives of the British government would have received their first notification of the Declaration of Independence.

In August 1776, British forces crossed the Straits to Brooklyn and outflanked American forces at the Battle of Long Island, resulting in British control of the port and the capture of New York City shortly thereafter. Three weeks later, on September 11, 1776, Sir William's brother Lord Howe received a delegation of Americans consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge, and John Adams at the Conference House in the far southwest. of the island on Christopher's former property. Billop. The Americans rejected a peace offer from Howe in exchange for withdrawing the Declaration of Independence, and the conference ended without an agreement.

On August 22, 1777, the Battle of Staten Island took place between British forces and several companies of the 2nd Canadian Regiment that were fighting alongside other American companies. The battle was inconclusive, although both sides surrendered more than one hundred soldiers as prisoners. The Americans eventually withdrew.

In early 1780, while the Kill Van Kull was frozen, Lord Stirling led an unsuccessful independentist raid from New Jersey on the western shore of Staten Island. It was partly repulsed by troops led by the British commander Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings.

In June 1780, Wilhelm von Knyphausen, commander of Britain's Hessian auxiliaries, led many raids and a full assault on New Jersey from Staten Island with the goal of defeating George Washington and the Continental Army. Although the raids were successful in the Newark and Elizabeth areas, the advance was halted at Connecticut Farms (Union) and the Battle of Springfield.

British forces remained on Staten Island for the rest of the war. Most independence supporters fled after the British occupation and the sentiment of those who stayed was predominantly loyalist. Still, the islanders found the demands for troop support burdensome. The British Army maintained its headquarters in neighborhoods such as Bulls Head. Many buildings and churches were destroyed for their materials, and the military's demand for resources resulted in extensive deforestation by the end of the war. The British Army again used the island as a staging ground for its final evacuation of New York City on December 5, 1783. After their departure, many loyal landowners, such as Christopher Billop, the family of Canadian historian Peter Fisher, John Dunn, who founded St. Andrews in New Brunswick and Abraham Jones, fled to Canada and their properties were subdivided and sold.

Staten Island was occupied by the British longer than any other part of the Thirteen Colonies.

19th century

On July 4, 1827, the end of slavery in New York State was celebrated at the Swan Hotel, West Brighton. Hotel rooms were booked months in advance as local abolitionists, including prominent free blacks, prepared for the festivities. Speeches, parades, picnics and fireworks marked the celebration, which lasted two days.

From 1800 to 1858, Staten Island was the location of the largest quarantine facility in the United States. Angry residents burned down the hospital grounds in 1858 in a series of attacks known as the Staten Island Quarantine War.

In 1860, parts of Castleton and Southfield became a new town, Middletown. The town of New Brighton in the town of Castleton was incorporated in 1866, and in 1872 the town of New Brighton annexed all the rest of the town of Castleton and became coterminous with the town.

An 1887 movement to make Staten Island a city came to nothing.

Consolidation with New York City

The towns of Staten Island were dissolved in 1898 with the consolidation of the City of Greater New York, when Richmond County became one of the five boroughs of the expanded city. Although consolidated into the City of Greater New York in 1898, the Staten Island County Sheriff maintained control of the prison system, unlike the other districts, which had gradually transferred control of the jails to the Department of Corrections. The prison system was not transferred until January 1, 1942. Staten Island is the only borough that does not have a main New York City Department of Corrections detention center.

The construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, along with Staten Island's three other major bridges, created a new way for commuters and tourists to travel from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Manhattan, and areas further east on Long Island. The network of highways that run between the bridges has effectively carved up many of Staten Island's old neighborhoods. The bridge opened many areas of the district to residential and commercial development, especially in the central and southern parts, which were underdeveloped. Staten Island's population doubled from 221,991 in 1960 to 443,728 in 2000. However, Staten Island remained less developed than the rest of the city. A 1972 New York Times article stated that, although the municipality had 333,000 inhabitants, parts of the island still maintained a bucolic atmosphere with forests and swamps.

Throughout the 1980s, a secessionist movement grew in popularity, notably championed by veteran New York state senator and former Republican Party mayoral candidate John J. Marchi. The campaign peaked during David Dinkins' mayoral term (1990–1993), after the United States Supreme Court invalidated the New York City Board of Estimates, which had granted equal representation to the five districts. Dinkins and the city government opposed a non-binding secession referendum, arguing that the state should not allow the vote unless the city issued a home rule message supporting it, which the city would not do. Governor Mario Cuomo disagreed and the vote went ahead in 1993. Ultimately, 65% of Staten Island residents voted to secede, approving a new city charter making Staten Island into an independent city, but implementation was blocked in the State Assembly.

In the 1980s, the United States Navy had a base on Staten Island called Naval Station New York. This consisted of two sections: a strategic homeport at Stapleton and a larger section near Fort Wadsworth, where the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge enters the island. The base was closed in 1994 due to its small size and the cost of basing personnel there.

Fresh Kills and its tributaries are part of the largest tidal wetland ecosystem in the region. Its streams and wetlands have been designated Important Coastal Wildlife and Fish Habitat by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Opened along Fresh Kills as a "temporary landfill" In 1947, Fresh Kills Landfill was a garbage dump for New York City. The landfill, once the largest man-made structure in the world, was closed in 2001, but was briefly reopened for debris from Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Currently, a recovery and transformation process has been undertaken into a park, which includes an island for nesting birds, public roads, promenades, soccer and baseball fields, bridle paths and a stadium with capacity for 5,000 people. Today, freshwater and tidal wetlands, fields, birch thickets, and a maritime coastal oak forest, as well as areas dominated by non-native plant species, lie within the boundaries of Fresh Kills.

Geology

During the Paleozoic Era, the tectonic plate containing the continent of Laurentia and the plate containing the continent of Gondwana were converging, the Iapetus Ocean that separated the two continents gradually closed, and the resulting collision between the plates formed the Appalachian mountains. During the early stages of the construction of this mountain known as the Taconic orogeny, a piece of oceanic crust from the Iapetus Ocean broke away and was incorporated into the collision zone and now forms the oldest rock stratum on Staten Island, serpentinite.

This Lower Paleozoic stratum (about 430 million years ago) is composed predominantly of the serpentine minerals, antigorite, chrysotile, and lizardite; It also contains asbestos and talc. At the end of the Paleozoic era (about 248 million years ago) all major continental masses were united into the supercontinent of Pangea.

Palisades Sill has been designated a National Natural Landmark, being "the finest example of a thick diabase sheet in the United States." It underlies a portion of northwestern Staten Island, with an outcrop visible on Travis, near Travis Road in the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge. This is the same formation that appears in New Jersey and upstate New York along the Hudson River in Palisades Interstate Park. The sill extends south past the cliffs in Jersey City, beneath New York's Upper Harbor, and reappears on Staten Island. The Palisades sheet dates to the Early Jurassic period, 192 to 186 million years ago.

Staten Island has been at the southern end of several periods of ice age. The most recent, the Wisconsin Ice Age, ended about 12,000 years ago. The accumulated rock and sediment deposited at the end of the glacier is known as the terminal moraine present along the central part of the island. Evidence of these glacial periods is visible in the remaining forested areas of Staten Island in the form of glacial erratics and caldera ponds.

When the ice sheet retreated, Staten Island was connected by land to Long Island, since the straits had not yet formed. Geologists' calculations of the course of the Hudson River have placed it alternatively through the current course of the Raritan River, south of the island, or through present-day Flushing and Jamaica Bays.

Demography

According to the 2019 population estimate, 476,143 people live on Staten Island, an increase of 1.6% over the 2010 census. Of them, 75.2% are Caucasian, 11.7 % African American, 10.2% Asian, 0.6% Native American, 0.1% Polynesian, and 2.1% various ethnicities. 18.7% of the population is of Hispanic American origin. Likewise, 23.0% were born outside the United States.

The average annual household income is $79,267, with a per capita income of $34,987. About 11.7% of the population is below the poverty line.

Government

Since 2022, the president of the borough is Vito Fossella, of the Republican Party.

Culture

Artists and musicians have moved to the north shore of Staten Island so they can be very close to Manhattan but also have enough affordable space to live and work. Filmmakers, most of whom work independently, also play an important role in Staten Island's arts scene, which has been recognized by the local government. Staten Island Arts (formerly The Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island) is Staten Island's local arts council and helps support local artists and cultural organizations with grants, workshops, folklife and arts in education programs, and advocacy. Conceived by the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation to present independent and international films to a broad and diverse audience, the Staten Island Film Festival (SIFF) held its first four-day festival in 2006.

Attractions

Historic Richmond Town is New York City's living history village and museum complex. Visitors can explore the diversity of the American experience, especially that of Staten Island and its neighboring communities, from the colonial period to the present. The village area occupies 10 ha of a 40 ha site with around 15 restored buildings, including housing, commercial and civic buildings, and a museum.

Museums

Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Alice Austen House Museum, Conference House, Garibaldi–Meucci Museum, Historic Richmond Town, Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, Noble Maritime Collection, Sandy Ground Historical Museum, Staten Island Children's Museum, the Staten Island Museum, and the Staten Island Botanical Garden, home of the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden, can be found on the island.

The National Lighthouse Museum recently undertook a major fundraising project and opened its doors in 2012, and the Staten Island Museum (art, science and history) plans to open a new branch in Snug Harbor by 2014.

The Seguine Mansion, also known as the Seguine-Burke Mansion, is located on Lemon Creek, near the south shore of Staten Island. The Greek Revival style house is one of the few surviving examples of 19th century life on Staten Island. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of the Historic House Trust. It is an underrated attraction that is home to peacocks and an equestrian center.

Education

The New York City Department of Education operates public schools.

The New York Public Library operates public libraries.