Staten Island

Staten Island, borough of New York, New York State, United States. Staten Island is co-extensive with Richmond County (comprising Staten Island and tiny adjacent islands), in New York Bay and lies south-west of Manhattan Island, with which it is linked by ferry, and west of Brooklyn, with which it is linked by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge across The Narrows of New York Bay. To the west and north lies New Jersey, from which it is separated by the narrow Arthur Kill and Kill Van Kull and with which it is connected by the Goethals, Bayonne, and Outerbridge Crossing bridges. Although predominantly level, the island rises in the north-east to Todt Hill, the highest point in New York at 125 m (409 ft). Of the five boroughs of New York, Staten Island has the smallest population and is also the most suburban. Population 378,977 (2002 estimate).

Staten Island’s many urban centres include St George-Tompkinsville, a major commercial area; Port Richmond; New Dorp; Prince's Bay; and Mariner's Harbor, an industrial section. The island has important shipping and oil-refining activities, and manufactures soaps, toilet articles, chemicals, and communications equipment.

Located here are Wagner College (1883), the College of Staten Island (1955), and a campus of St John's University. Snug Harbor, once a noted home for retired seamen, is also here. Of interest are the Jacques Marchais Center of Tibetan Art; a memorial to the Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi, who lived on Staten Island in the 1850s, and the Staten Island Zoo. The borough has an extensive park system, including part of Gateway National Recreation Area, and has many 17th- and 18th-century homes. Of special interest are the Conference House (1680) and the Voorlezer's House (1695), the nation's oldest surviving elementary school building. Along the island’s northwest coast, numerous freshwater wetlands support more than 100 species of birds. These wetlands and several small islands just offshore are the focus of nesting and breeding projects for local bird species.

Staten Island was sighted by the explorer Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524. It was named by the English navigator Henry Hudson in 1609 after the States-General (Staten Generaal), the Dutch legislature. Attempts to colonize the island in 1639 and 1650 were thwarted by Native Americans until a peace treaty was effected in 1660 and the first permanent settlement began in 1661. The area passed to the English in 1664, and in 1683 the island was designated Richmond County in honour of Charles Lennox, the Duke of Richmond and a son of Charles II.

Regular ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan began in 1712 and the island grew slowly as a relatively isolated farming and fishing centre. The Staten Island Ferry, established in 1829 by Cornelius Vanderbilt, is at present the only direct connection with Manhattan. In the 1880s it became popular as a seaside resort, and in 1898 it was made a borough of New York. The opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964 led to considerable residential development. The bridge links Staten Island with Brooklyn and is the longest suspension bridge in the United States, with a main span of 1,298 m (4,260 ft).