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Due to a planned New York Harbor closure and planned street closures in Lower Manhattan, Governors Island will close at 3PM on Friday, July 4, 2025. More info.

Due to a planned New York Harbor closure and planned street closures in Lower Manhattan, Governors Island will close at 3PM on Friday, July 4, 2025. More info.

Blog

Cas­tle Williams under­goes abate­ment and stabilization

Feb 24, 2010 6:33 pm
Cas­tle Williams is a part of the Gov­er­nors Island Nation­al Mon­u­ment and is one of the most unique struc­tures on Gov­er­nors Island. The Cas­tle is a cir­cu­lar fort made of red sand­stone and it was built between 1807 and 1811 under the direc­tion of Colonel Jonathan Williams, then the Chief Engi­neer of the US Army Corps of Engi­neers. [cap­tion id=“attachment_2755” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“Castle Williams was one com­po­nent of a defen­sive har­bor sys­tem that includ­ed sev­er­al forts around New York Har­bor”][/​caption] Over the course of its his­to­ry when the US Army was on Gov­er­nors Island, it was used as a for­ti­fi­ca­tion to pro­tect New York Har­bor, a bar­racks for troops head­ing off to war, a prison for Con­fed­er­ate sol­diers, and a mil­i­tary prison. Dur­ing the Coast Guard era, it was remod­eled into a youth com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter with a nurs­ery, meet­ing rooms for scouts and clubs, a wood­work­ing shop, art stu­dio, pho­tog­ra­phy lab and a muse­um. One of the most out­stand­ing aspects of the Cas­tle is the view from its roof. From that van­tage point, vis­i­tors can not only enjoy the incred­i­ble vista of the Har­bor and the sky­line, but they can appre­ci­ate and under­stand the mean­ing and sig­nif­i­cance of Gov­er­nors Island’s strate­gic loca­tion in the Har­bor and its role in the nation’s his­to­ry. Over the past sev­er­al years, while vis­i­tors have been able to walk into the inte­ri­or court­yard of the Cas­tle, they could not access the inte­ri­or or the roof. This is about to change, how­ev­er. The Nation­al Park Ser­vice on Gov­er­nors Island has received fund­ing through the Amer­i­can Recov­ery and Rein­vest­ment Act to abate haz­ardous mate­ri­als, remove health and safe­ty haz­ards, and repair the Cas­tle. This work is just begin­ning and will con­tin­ue over the next year. 

[cap­tion id=“attachment_2758” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“View of the Castle’s inte­ri­or and roof, with the NYC sky­line. Vis­i­tors will have access to the Cas­tle again in 2011, just in time for its 200th birth­day (pho­to by Andrew Moore)”][/​caption] Once this work is com­plet­ed next year, it will allow vis­i­tors access to the Cas­tle to expe­ri­ence Gov­er­nors Island’s his­to­ry in entire­ly new and excit­ing ways.

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