title: The Great British Bake Off (series 11)

text: For the signature challenge, the bakers were given three hours to create 12 miniature panettones. Prue's technical challenge required the bakers to make a quick Christmas pudding (with mincemeat made from scratch), to be cooked in a microwave and served with a Crème anglaise, in one hour and 15 minutes. The showstopper challenge asked the bakers to make an illusion cake to depict their ultimate Christmas day feast, in four hours.


title: The Great British Bake Off (series 11)

text: The Great New Year Bake Off featured Helena Garcia and Henry Bird from Series 10 as well as Series 5 winner Nancy Birtwhistle and Series 9 winner Rahul Mandal, making it the first time in the show's history two former winners were featured competing against each other. Noel Fielding returned to host alongside Matt Lucas.


title: The Great British Bake Off (series 11)

text: The signature challenge required the bakers to make a fruit crumble, served with a complementary ice cream, in two hours. Paul's technical challenge tasked the bakers with making 6 steamed bao buns with shredded crispy duck fillings, in two hours. To celebrate the 2021 New Year, the bakers were asked to make a cake celebrating their 21st birthday for the showstopper challenge, in four hours.


title: The Great British Bake Off (series 11)

text: The premiere episode of the series had the best start for the show since it moved to Channel 4, with an average of 6.9 million viewers tuning in and peaking at 7.9 million according to overnight viewing figures. The weekly consolidated audience figure was reported to be 10.8 million, which increased to 11.2 million after viewers who watched on other devices were included. This is the highest rating for any series on Channel 4 in 35 years after the miniseries "A Woman of Substance," which was watched by 13.9 million viewers in 1985. The overnight audience figure rose to an average of 9.2 million for the final, peaking at 10.4 million. The consolidated audience figure for the finale was 11.5 million, the second highest for a commissioned programme in Channel 4 history, and the consolidated figure averaged at 10.6 million for the series.


title: The Great British Bake Off (series 11)

text: In the US, collection 8 was ranked amongst the top 10 most-streamed shows in the US, according to Nielsen's streaming rankings for the week of October 12. With 674 million minutes streamed, the show was the 5th most watched program on Netflix for the week.


title: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: The swimming competitions at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were due to take place from 25 July to 6 August 2020 at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were postponed to 2021. However, their official name remained 2020 Summer Olympics with swimming events set for 24 July–1 August 2021 and marathon swimming set for 4–5 August 2021.


title: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: Swimming featured a record total of 37 events (18 for each gender and 1 mixed), with the addition of the men's 800 m freestyle, women's 1500 m freestyle, and the mixed medley relay.


title: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: Swimming at the 2020 Olympics featured a total of 37 events (18 each for men and women and 1 mixed event), including two 10 km open-water marathons. This was a slight increase from the 34 events contested in the previous Olympic Games. The following events were contested (all pool events are long course, and distances are in meters unless stated):


title: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: Unlike the previous Olympics, swimming program schedule occurred in two segments. For the pool events, similar to the case of the 2008 Games, prelims were held in the evening, with semifinals and final in the following morning session, spanning a day between semifinals and finals in those events with semifinals. The shift of the normal morning prelims and evening finals (to evening prelims and morning finals) occurred for these Games due to the prior request made by US broadcaster NBC (due to the substantial fees NBC has paid for rights to the Olympics, the IOC has allowed NBC to have influence on event scheduling to maximize U.S. television ratings when possible; NBC agreed to a $7.75 billion contract extension on May 7, 2014, to air the Olympics through the 2032 games, is also one of the major sources of revenue for the IOC), so that the finals from the event could be shown live in the United States.


title: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: FINA establishes qualifying times for individual events. The time standards consisted of two types: an "Olympic "Qualifying" Time" (OQT) and an "Olympic "Selection" time" (OST). Each country was able to enter up to two swimmers per event, provided both swimmers met the (faster) "qualifying" time. A country was able to enter one swimmer per event that met the "invitation" standard. Any swimmer who met the "qualifying" time was entered in the event for the Games; a swimmer meeting the "invitation" standard was eligible for entry, and their entry was allotted/filled in by ranking. If a country has no swimmers who meet either of the qualifying standards, it may have entered one male and one female. A country that did not receive an allocation spot but had at least one swimmer who met a qualifying standard might have entered the swimmer with the highest ranking.


title: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: As the host nation, Japan received guaranteed quota places in case it would not qualify based on rankings.


title: Quoll

text: Quolls (; genus Dasyurus) are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Another two species are known from fossil remains in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits in Queensland. Genetic evidence indicates that quolls evolved around 15 million years ago in the Miocene, and that the ancestors of the six species had all diverged by around four million years ago. The six species vary in weight and size, from to . They have brown or black fur and pink noses. They are largely solitary, but come together for a few social interactions such as mating which occurs during the winter season. A female gives birth to up to 18 pups, of which only six survive because she only has six teats with which to feed them. They have a life span from 2 to 4 years.


title: Quoll

text: Quolls eat smaller mammals, small birds, lizards, and insects. All species have drastically declined in numbers since Australasia was colonised by Europeans, with one species, the eastern quoll, becoming extinct on the Australian mainland, now found only in Tasmania. Major threats to their survival include the toxic cane toad, predators such as feral cats and foxes, urban development, and poison baiting. Conservation efforts include breeding programs in captivity, one of which is taking place in Tasmania with support from Rewilding Australia and Conjour.


title: Quoll

text: The name "Dasyurus" (from Greek δασύουρος, "dasyouros") means "hairy-tail", and was coined by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1796.


title: Quoll

text: In 1770, Captain Cook collected quolls on his exploration of the east coast of Australia, adopting an Aboriginal name for the animals. Although the origin of Cook's specimens are unclear, the word and its variants "je-quoll", "jaquol" or "taquol" are derived from the word "dhigul" in the language of the Guugu Yimithirr people of far north Queensland. No evidence indicates the local indigenous people used the word in the Sydney area. They were likened in appearance to a polecat or marten in the earliest reports, the tiger quoll being called "spotted marten" and eastern quoll "spotted opossum", but by 1804, the names "native fox", "native cat" and "tiger cat" had been adopted by early settlers; quolls are still called "marsupial foxes" or "marsupial cats".


title: Quoll

text: In the 1960s, noted naturalist David Fleay pushed for the revival of the term "quoll" to replace the then-current vernacular names that he felt were misleading. They are very well known animals in Australia.


title: Quoll

text: Four species have been recovered from Pleistocene cave deposits from Mount Etna Caves National Park near Rockhampton in central Queensland. Remains of the tiger quoll and the northern quoll, and a species either identical or very similar to the eastern quoll, as well as a prehistoric species as yet undescribed, all lived in what was a rainforest climate. The northern quoll is still found in the region. The fossil species "D. dunmalli", described by Bartholomai in 1971, is the oldest species recovered to date. Its remains were found in Pliocene deposits near Chinchilla in southeastern Queensland. Known only from a lower jaw and some teeth, it was a relative of the tiger quoll.


title: Quoll

text: The first species described, the eastern quoll, was originally placed in the American opossum genus "Didelphis" by an anonymous author, and named "Didelphis maculata". This name is no longer considered valid, and the second part of the name is now given to a different species, the tiger quoll, "Dasyurus maculatus", while the eastern quoll was renamed "Dasyurus viverrinus" by George Shaw in 1800.


title: Quoll

text: The tribe Dasyurini, to which quolls belong, also includes the Tasmanian devil, the antechinus, the kowari, and the mulgara. Genetic analysis of cytochrome b DNA and 12S rRNA


title: Quoll

text: of the mitochondria indicates the quolls evolved and diversified in the late Miocene between 15 and 5 million years ago, a time of great diversification in marsupials. The ancestors of all current species had diverged by the early Pliocene, around 4 million years ago.


title: Quoll

text: Adults are between long, with hairy tails about long. Females have six nipples and develop a pouch during the breeding season, which opens toward the tail (with the exception of the tiger quoll, which has a true pouch) when they are rearing young. Their coats are brown or black, with a sparse scattering of white spots. They have bright pink noses and long snouts. Their natural lifespans are between two and five years; the larger species tend to live longer than the smaller. Quolls are solitary, nocturnal animals. The average weight differs greatly depending on the species; male western and eastern quolls weigh about and females . The tiger quoll is the largest, with the male weighing about and the female . The northern quoll is the smallest, and the male weighs on average , and the female .


title: Quoll

text: Quolls are indigenous to mainland Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. The six species were once widely distributed across the three land masses, but are now restricted to only a few areas. Although primarily ground-dwelling, the genus has developed secondary arboreal characteristics. Each species of quoll lives in distinct geographical areas. The tiger quoll and eastern quoll are exclusively mesic zone species, that is they inhabit moister habitats. The western quoll also inhabits mesic habitat, but has adapted to arid regions across inland Australia, while the northern quoll inhabits tropical habitat of high rainfall.


title: Quoll

text: Quolls are carnivorous marsupials. They are primarily nocturnal, sleeping in hollowed-out logs or rocky dens and coming out to hunt during the night, though on rare occasions they can be seen looking for prey during the day.


title: Quoll

text: They are mostly ground-dwelling, but it is not uncommon to see a quoll climbing a tree. Quolls mark their territory several kilometres away from their dens. A male's territory often overlaps many females' territories, and male and female quolls only meet for mating. Quolls have communal toilet areas, usually on an outcropping used for marking territory and social functions. These communal latrines may have up to 100 droppings in them.


title: Quoll

text: Quolls are mostly solitary creatures, limiting contact with other quolls to mating or other social activities.


title: Quoll

text: Quolls are mostly carnivorous. The smaller quolls primarily eat insects, birds, frogs, lizards and fruit; the larger species eat birds, reptiles, and mammals, including echidnas and possums. The tiger quoll's diet is dominated by mammals such as brushtail possums, rabbits, hares and invertabrates. The exact mix is variable depending on the availability of prey after bushfires, and can include carrion or bandicoots when food is scarce. The other species of quoll have also been known to eat carrion. The paws and vibrissae of quolls allow them to reach into small burrows to find prey. Quolls hunt by stalking. Depending on the size of its prey, a quoll may leap or pounce on it. Quolls pin small prey down with their front paws while devouring it, and jump onto larger prey, sinking in their claws and closing their jaws around the neck. Quolls can obtain all the water they need from their food, making them quite adaptable during droughts or other periods of water shortage. A study of historical records revealed 111 written accounts of quolls opportunistically feeding on human remains in Australia.


title: Quoll

text: Mating occurs during the winter months. Once a female quoll has been impregnated, the folds on her abdomen convert into a pouch that opens at the back. The gestation period is 21 days. A baby quoll, or pup, is the size of a grain of rice. Up to 18 quolls are born in each litter, but only six survive the first two weeks. The survivors stay in their mother's pouch for eight weeks, suckling on one of the mother's six teats for milk. During the ninth week, the pups venture out of the pouch and onto the mother's back, where they remain for six weeks. Quolls reach maturity when they are one year old, and have a natural lifespan of between two and five years. A 2008 study of the pouches of tiger quolls reported the pouches' appearance were reliable indicators of the quolls' reproductive status: during the follicular phase, pouches were found to be red and have many secretions. After ovulation, pouches became deep and wet. Researchers can use this information to determine where a female quoll is in her ovarian cycle, which is anticipated to be helpful in breeding management.


title: Quoll

text: Cane toads were introduced into Queensland in 1935; their numbers have since grown exponentially. These poisonous toads pose a significant threat to the northern quoll, which may die after consuming one. The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has stated that cane toads are highly invasive and are major threats to the survival of quolls.


title: Quoll

text: Predators such as foxes and cats prey on quolls and compete with them for food. For example, both quolls and foxes catch and consume rabbits. Since the introduction of foxes, quoll populations have dropped dramatically. Foxes have been eradicated from many of the islands off the coast of Australia in an effort to protect quolls.


title: Quoll

text: Quolls are suffering badly from urbanisation, housing development, mining development, and expansion of agricultural lands. Habitats are also being destroyed by large herbivores trampling the grass and overgrowth, making camouflage difficult. Bush fires and weeds also contribute to habitat destruction.


title: Quoll

text: The natural poison fluoroacetate (Compound 1080) is commonly used in Australia to control introduced pests such as European rabbits, foxes, feral predators, and wild dogs such as dingoes. The poison is extremely toxic to introduced pests, but less so to native animals as it is found naturally in many Australian plants. However, juvenile quolls may be susceptible to the poison. Research is underway to determine whether the number of quolls protected from predators may be less than those killed by the poison.


title: Quoll

text: Since 1770, all Australian quoll species have declined in number owing to habitat loss caused by urbanisation. Rabbits were introduced to Australia with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 as part of biodiversity enrichment efforts. The native quolls predated upon rabbits and prior to 1870, many accounts recorded quolls impeding their establishment on the mainland while island colonies thrived. Quolls were systematically exterminated by colonists to defend introduced species such as chickens; rabbits populations subsequently reached plague proportions.


title: Quoll

text: The northern quoll is threatened by toxic cane toads, but a University of Sydney project revealed in 2010 is teaching them to avoid eating the invasive amphibians.


title: Quoll

text: In 2008, the Northern Territory Wildlife Park in Australia recorded their first litter of quoll pups in the park. The quolls bred well in captivity, with over 15 litters in the 2008 breeding season alone.


title: Quoll

text: In late October 2011, a litter of five tiger quoll pups was born at Wild Life Sydney in Darling Harbour, Australia. The pups were born to inexperienced parents, both just one year old. The reason for the young parents was because older male quolls can become violent and kill the female if they do not want to mate. By breeding one-year-old quolls, there was no threat of violence. Four of the quoll pups will be sent to other zoos or wildlife parks across Australia, but one, which the researchers named Nelson, will stay at the centre to become an "ambassador for all quolls".


title: Quoll

text: Fox control programs have benefited the western quoll. The Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia) monitors western quoll populations in the Jarrah Forest as part of its faunal management programs, as well as ongoing research into fox control, timber harvesting, and prescribed burning. The Perth Zoo has been monitoring a successful captive-breeding program since 1989. It has successfully bred more than 60 western quolls, most of which it transferred to Julimar Conservation Park, with proposals to translocate to Wheatbelt reserves and Shark Bay.


title: Quoll

text: The bronze quoll occurs in a few protected areas, such as Wasur National Park and Tonda Wildlife Management Area. More research on distribution and threats is needed for further conservation.


title: Quoll

text: Creating a native pet industry in Australia related to quolls could aid in their conservation. However, concerns exist about this methodology in regards to animal husbandry, conservation benefits, and other issues. Some scientists believe that keeping quolls as pets could aid in their long-term conservation, but further research is needed on this topic to conclude whether this is true or false.


title: Quoll

text: In March 2018, twenty eastern quolls bred in a wildlife park in Tasmania were released into the Booderee National Park on the NSW South Coast. After 50 years of absence, the effort to reintroduce eastern quolls to mainland Australia achieved success, with 15 babies found in the pouches of three adult females.


title: Quoll

text: In May 2021, the re-introduction of Quolls to Booderee National Park has been reported to have failed when numbers were down to one male.


title: Quoll

text: Quolls have been studied in captivity, with the ultimate aim of supporting conservation of the species, and future translocations. These studies include investigations into their haematology and blood biochemistry profiles, and dietary studies.


title: Quoll

text: Tjilpa is the name given to the quoll amongst the Northern Arrernte language group of Australian Aboriginal people.


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is a 1957 folk song written by British political singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who later became his wife. At the time, the couple were lovers, although MacColl was still married to his second wife, Jean Newlove. Seeger sang the song when the duo performed in folk clubs around Britain. During the 1960s, it was recorded by various folk singers and became a major international hit for Roberta Flack in 1972, winning Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. "Billboard" ranked it as the number one Hot 100 single of the year for 1972.


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: There are two differing accounts of the origin of the song. MacColl said that he wrote the song for Seeger after she asked him to pen a song for a play she was in. He wrote the song and taught it to Seeger over the telephone. Seeger said that MacColl, with whom she had begun an affair in 1957, used to send her tapes to listen to while they were apart and that the song was on one of them.


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: Peggy Seeger has said that MacColl had been challenged to write a love song (given that his repertoire was largely political) and this song was his response.


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: The earliest recording of the song was in 1960 by Bonnie Dobson, released in 1961 on her debut album "She's Like a Swallow and Other Folk Songs". The song entered the pop mainstream the following year when it was released by the Kingston Trio on their 1962 hit album "New Frontier" and in subsequent years by other pop folk groups such as Peter, Paul and Mary, the Brothers Four, Joe and Eddie, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and by Gordon Lightfoot on his debut album "Lightfoot!" (1966).


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: MacColl made no secret of the fact that he disliked all of the cover versions of the song. His daughter-in-law wrote: "He hated all of them. He had a special section in his record collection for them, entitled 'The Chamber of Horrors'. He said that the Elvis version was like Romeo at the bottom of the Post Office Tower singing up to Juliet. And the other versions, he thought, were travesties: bludgeoning, histrionic, and lacking in grace."


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: The song was popularised by Roberta Flack in 1969 in a version that became a breakout hit for the singer.


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: Flack knew the song from the Joe & Eddie version which appeared on that folk duo's 1963 album "Coast to Coast" (as "The First Time"), Flack's friend singer Donal Leace having brought the track to Flack's attention. Having taught the song to the young girls in the glee club at Banneker High School (Washington D.C.), Flack would regularly perform "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in her set-list at the Pennsylvania Avenue club Mr Henry's where Flack was hired as resident singer in 1968. In February 1969, Flack would record the song for her debut album "First Take". Flack's rendition was much slower-paced than Seeger's original, Flack's take running more than twice the two and a half minute length of Seeger's. Flack would recall that when she made her studio recording of "The First Time...", she felt the loss of her pet cat, which had been run over and died.


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: Flack's slow and sensual version was used by Clint Eastwood in his 1971 directorial film debut: "Play Misty for Me" to score a love scene featuring Eastwood and actress Donna Mills. Flack would recall how Eastwood, who had heard her version of "The First Time..." on his car radio while driving down the LA Freeway, phoned out of the blue to her Alexandria (Virginia) home: "[Eastwood said:] 'I'd like to use your song in this movie...about a disc jockey [with] a lot of music in it. I'd use it in the only part of the movie where there's absolute love.' I said okay. We discussed the money.[Eastwood would pay $2000 to use Flack's "The First Time..."] He said: 'Anything else?' And I said: 'I want to do it over again. It's too slow.' He said: "No, it's not.'"


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: Flack also recalled that during the "First Take" sessions, her producer Joel Dorn had suggested re-recording "The First Time..." with a slightly faster tempo and lyric edit to trim its running time, but Flack did not agree: "Joel said: 'Okay you don't care if it's a hit or not?' I said: 'No sir.' Of course he was right for three years, until [after] Clint got it." Flack's version of "The First Time..." exploded in popularity following the November 1971 release of "Play Misty For Me." This persuaded Atlantic Records to issue the track as a single - trimmed by a minute - in February 1972: the track became a smash hit single in the United States, reaching No. 1 for six weeks on both the "Billboard" Hot 100 and easy listening charts in the spring of 1972, with a No. 4 R&B chart peak. Reaching No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart, Flack's "The First Time..." was No. 1 for three weeks on the singles chart in Canada's "RPM" magazine.


title: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

text: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was played as the wake-up music on flight day 9 to the astronauts aboard Apollo 17 on their last day in Lunar orbit (Friday, December 15, 1972) before returning to Earth, thus ending the last human explorations of the Moon. The use of the song was most likely a reference to the "face" of the Moon below the spacecraft.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo () is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around 550 A.D.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo's summit is the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center, given that it is located along the planet's equatorial bulge. This is despite not being the tallest mountain in the Andes or on Earth. Based on the average global sea level, the height of Chimborazo is 6,263 m (20,548 ft), well below the height of Mount Everest. Nevertheless, Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador and the 39th highest peak in the Andes.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo is a popular destination for mountaineering as its climbing routes are considered challenging and take place on snow, ice, and rock, often requiring crampons and other technical climbing equipment.


title: Chimborazo

text: Several theories regarding the origin of the name Chimborazo exist. In many dialects of Quichua or Quechua, "chimba" means "on the other side" as in "on the other side of the river" or "on the opposite bank." Other dialects pronounce this word "chimpa." Also, "razu" means "ice" or "snow." Local Quichua speakers will say that Chimborazo is a Hispanicized pronunciation of "chimbarazu," meaning "the snow on the other side." Another theory suggests it is a combination of the Cayapa "Schingbu" for "Women" and the Colorado/Quichua "Razo" for "Ice/Snow" resulting in "Women of Ice". According to another, "Chimbo" is Jívaro for "Throne of Master/God" resulting in "Icethrone of God". The locals also used to call the mountain "Urcurazu", with the Quichua "Urcu" for "Mountain" resulting in "Mountain of Ice". In local indigenous mysticism, Chimborazo represents "Taita" (Father) whereas neighbouring Tungurahua is seen as "Mama", and "Guagua" (Child) for Pichincha hence "Taita Chimborazo, Mama Tungurahua and Guagua Pichincha".


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo is in the Chimborazo Province of Ecuador, south-southwest of the city of Quito, Ecuador. It is a neighbor to high Carihuairazo. Chimborazo's summit rises above the surrounding highlands (~) with a ≈ wide base.


title: Chimborazo

text: Under clear conditions, the summit of Chimborazo can be seen from the coastal city Guayaquil, nearly away. The nearest cities are Riobamba (~30 km to the southeast), Ambato (~30 km to the northeast) and Guaranda (~25 km to the southwest). Chimborazo is surrounded by the "Reserva de Producción Faunistica Chimborazo", which forms a protected ecosystem to preserve the habitat for the Andes native camelids of vicuña, llama and alpaca.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo is at the main end of the Ecuadorian Volcanic Arc, north west of the town of Riobamba. Chimborazo is in la Avenida de los Volcanes (the Avenue of Volcanoes) west of the Sanancajas mountain chain. Carihuairazo, Tungurahua, Tulabug, and El Altar are all mountains that neighbor Chimborazo. The closest mountain peak, Carihuairazo, is from Chimborazo. There are many microclimates near Chimborazo, varying from desert in the Arenal to the humid mountains in the Abraspungo valley.


title: Chimborazo

text: The top of Chimborazo is completely covered by glaciers, with some north-eastern glacier arms flowing down to 4,600 m. Its glacier is the source of water for the population of the Bolivar and Chimborazo provinces of Ecuador. Chimborazo glacier's ice mass has decreased over the past decades, which is thought to be in large part due to climate change, as well as ash cover from recent volcanic activity at Tungurahua, and the El Niño phenomenon.


title: Chimborazo

text: As on other glaciated Ecuadorian mountains, Chimborazo's glacial ice is mined by locals (the so-called "Hieleros" from Spanish "Hielo" for Ice) to be sold in the markets of Guaranda and Riobamba. In earlier days, the people transported ice for cooling uses down to coastal towns such as Babahoyo or Vinces.


title: Chimborazo

text: With an elevation of , Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador and the Andes north of Peru; it is higher than any more northerly summit in the Americas.


title: Chimborazo

text: The summit of Mount Everest is higher above sea level, but the summit of Chimborazo is widely reported to be the farthest point on the surface from Earth's center, with Huascarán a very close second.


title: Chimborazo

text: The summit of Chimborazo is the fixed point on Earth that has the utmost distance from the center – because of the oblate spheroid shape of the planet Earth, which is thicker at the Equator than it is from pole to pole. Chimborazo is one degree south of the Equator and the Earth's diameter at the Equator is greater than at the latitude of Everest ( above sea level), nearly 27.6° north, with sea level also elevated. Despite being lower in elevation above sea level, it is from the Earth's center, farther than the summit of Everest ( from the Earth's center). However, by height above sea level, Chimborazo is not the highest peak of the Andes.


title: Chimborazo

text: Centrifugal force from the earth's rotation, and distance from the center of the earth, cause the force of gravity to be slightly reduced near the equator. The summit of Chimborazo has about one percent less gravity than the point with the highest gravitational force. Yet, due to its height above the surrounding terrain and local gravity anomalies, the summit of Huascarán is the place on Earth with the smallest gravitational force.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo is an ice-capped inactive volcano. Chimborazo is a double volcano composed of one volcanic edifice on top of another. Chimborazo shows four summits; Whymper, Veintimilla, Politecnica, and Nicolas Martínez. The Whymper peak is the highest point on the mountain at 6,263 meters. The Veintimilla peak is about high. The Politecnica peak is high. The last peak, Nicolas Martínez, is high and was named after the father of Ecuadorian mountaineering. The volcano is categorized as a stratovolcano. This type of volcano is characterized as having low slopes at the bottom that gradually get steeper the higher up the mountain. Chimborazo has a circumference of and a diameter of . Chimborazo's upper elevations are covered in glaciers that are decreasing in size due to climate change and falling ash from the nearby volcano, Tungurahua. In addition to the glaciers, the volcano is covered with craters. The volcano is dominantly andesitic to dacitic. This means that the lava is blocky, or flowing down the sides of the volcano, or somewhere in between.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo is 73.5 metres higher than the highest mountain in North America. Chimborazo is often associated with the nearby volcano Cotopaxi, although the two volcanoes have completely different structures.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo is a dominantly andesitic-dacitic stratovolcano. About 35,000 years ago a collapse of Chimborazo produced a debris avalanche with an average thickness of forty meters, which underlies the city of Riobamba. It temporarily dammed the Río Chambo, causing an ephemeral lake.


title: Chimborazo

text: Chimborazo then erupted several times during the Holocene, the last time around 550 AD ± 150 years. The eruptions after the collapse were primarily andesitic, or blocky, coagulated lava flow. These eruptions produced pyroclastic surges that went down as far as 3800 meters altitude. There have been at least seven eruptions in the past 10000 years. Chimborazo is officially considered inactive, but studies show that there may be an eruption in the future. The average time between eruptions for Chimborazo is 1,000 years, and the last eruption was 1,400 years ago.


title: Chimborazo

text: Until the beginning of the 19th century, it was thought that Chimborazo was the highest mountain on Earth (measured from sea level), and such reputation led to many attempts on its summit during the 17th and 18th centuries.


title: Chimborazo

text: In 1746, the volcano was explored by French academicians from the French Geodesic Mission. Their mission was to determine the sphericity of the Earth. Their work along with another team in Lapland established that the Earth was an oblate spheroid rather than a true sphere. They did not reach the summit of Chimborazo.


title: Chimborazo

text: In June 1802, during his expedition to South America, the Prussian-born traveler Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied by the French botanist Aimé Bonpland and the Ecuadorian Carlos Montúfar, tried to reach the summit. From his description of the mountain, it seems that before he and his companions had to return suffering from altitude sickness they reached a point at 5,875 m, higher than previously attained by any European in recorded history (Incans had reached much higher altitudes previously; see Llullaillaco). In 1831, Jean-Baptiste Boussingault and Colonel Hall reached a new "highest point", estimated to be 6,006 m. Other failed attempts to reach the summit followed.


title: Chimborazo

text: On 4 January 1880, the English climber Edward Whymper reached the summit of Chimborazo. The route that Whymper took up the mountain is now known as the Whymper route. Edward Whymper, and his Italian guides Louis Carrel and Jean-Antoine Carrel, were the first Europeans to summit a mountain higher than . As there were many critics who doubted that Whymper had reached the summit, later in the same year he climbed to the summit again, choosing a different route (Pogyos) with the Ecuadorians David Beltrán and Francisco Campaña.


title: Chimborazo

text: In August 1976, SAETA Flight 232 carrying 55 passengers and four crew members aboard a Vickers Viscount from Quito to Cuenca disappeared en route. In February 2003, after almost 27 years, the aircraft was found with the bodies of its 59 occupants at elevation on Chimborazo by Ecuadorian climbers on the rarely used eastern route "Integral".


title: Chimborazo

text: As Ecuador's highest mountain, Chimborazo is a very popular climb and can be climbed year round with the best seasons being December–January and July–August.


title: Chimborazo

text: The easiest (IFAS Grade: PD) and most climbed routes are the Normal and the Whymper route. Both are western ridge routes starting at the Whymper hut and leading via the Ventemilla summit to the main (Whymper) summit.


title: Chimborazo

text: There are several other less used and more challenging routes on the mountain's other faces and ridges leading to one of Chimborazo's summits: Main (Whymper, Ecuador), Politecnico (Central), N. Martinez (Eastern). The mountain is contained on the IGM ("Instituto Geografico Militar") 1:50000 Map "Chimborazo (CT-ÑIV-C1)".


title: Chimborazo

text: There are two functioning huts, the Carrel Hut (4,850 m) and the nearby Whymper Hut (5,000 m). The Carrel Hut can be reached by car from Riobamba, Ambato or Guaranda. On the north-west side there is the now defunct Zurita hut (4,900 m), which served as base for the Pogyos route.


title: Chimborazo

text: El Castillo is the most popular route up the volcano. This route is usually climbed December to February and June to September. This route involves climbing the west side of the volcano. The route starts at Whymper hut to a saddle above El Castillo. From the saddle, there is a glacier ridge. Then climbers go to the Veintemilla summit. Veintemilla summit is often the turnaround point for climbers. There is a 30-minute snow-filled basin between Veintemilla summit and Whymper summit. Whymper summit is the highest point of the mountain. The El Castillo route takes around eight to twelve hours to ascend and about three to five hours to descend. Climbing Chimborazo is dangerous due to the risk of avalanches, the severe weather conditions, and the fact that it is covered in glaciers. Climbing begins at night in order to reach the summit before sunrise when the snow melts, which increases the chance of avalanche and rockfall.


title: Chimborazo

text: The climb itself demands skill. The climb is often on black ice, so crampons and other technical climbing equipment are required. On November 10, 1993 three parties of climbers, one ascending and two descending, were caught in an avalanche on the steep slopes below the Veintimilla summit. This avalanche buried ten climbers in a crevasse at . These climbers comprised six French, two Ecuadorians, one Swiss, and one Chilean. After the ten climbers were buried in snow, it took twenty people and ten days to find their bodies. This was considered the worst climbing accident in Ecuador.


title: Gallows

text: A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks of grain or minerals, usually positioned in markets or toll gates. The term was also used for a projecting framework from which a ship's anchor might be raised so that it is no longer sitting on the bottom, i.e., "weighing [the] anchor,” while avoiding striking the ship’s hull.


title: Gallows

text: In modern usage it has come to mean almost exclusively a scaffold or gibbet used for execution by hanging.


title: Gallows

text: The term "gallows" was derived from a Proto-Germanic word "galgô" that refers to a "pole", "rod" or "tree branch". With the beginning of Christianization, Ulfilas used the term "galga" in his Gothic Testament to refer to the cross of Christ, until the use of the Latin term (crux = cross) prevailed.


title: Gallows

text: Occasionally, improvised gallows were used, usually by hanging the condemned from a tree or street light. Hangings from such improvised gallows are usually lynchings rather than judicial executions. In Afghanistan, the Taliban used football goals as gallows.


title: Gallows

text: Gallows may be permanent to act as a deterrent and grim symbol of the power of high justice (the French word for gallows, "potence", stems from the Latin word "potentia", meaning "power"). Many old prints of European cities show such a permanent gallows erected on a prominent hill outside the walls, or more commonly near the castle or other seat of justice. In the modern era the gallows were often installed inside a prison; freestanding on a scaffold in the yard, erected at ground level over a pit, enclosed in a small shed of stone, brick or wood, built into the gallery of a prison wing (with the beam resting in brackets on opposite walls), or in a purpose-built execution suite of rooms within the wing.


title: Gallows

text: Gallows can also be temporary. In some of the cases, they were even moved to the location of the crime. In England, pirates were typically executed using a temporary gallows, at low tide in the intertidal zone, then left for the sea to wash over them during the following high tides. John the Painter was hanged in 1777 from the mizzenmast of HMS Arethusa for arson in royal dockyards, the highest temporary gallows erected in British history.


title: Gallows

text: The only surviving New Drop gallows in the UK are in Rutland County Museum. The gallows were portable and were set up at the gaol (jail) when needed. These gallows were first used in 1813 to hang two burglars. The New Drop design was not very effective as the drop was too short to break the neck cleanly.


title: Gallows

text: If a crime took place inside, gallows were sometimes erected—and the criminal hanged—at the front door. In some cases of multiple offenders it was not uncommon to erect multiple temporary gallows, with one noose per condemned criminal. In one case a condemned strangled to death in agony for forty minutes until he finally died from asphyxiation.


title: Gallows

text: Hanging people from early gallows sometimes involved fitting the noose around the person's neck while he or she was on a ladder or in a horse-drawn cart underneath. Removing the ladder or driving the cart away left the person dangling by the neck to slowly strangle. A noted example of this type of execution in the USA was the hanging of British spy John André in 1780.


title: Gallows

text: Later, a "scaffold" with a trapdoor tended to be used, so victims dropped down and died quickly from a broken neck rather than through strangulation, especially if extra weights were fixed to their ankles.


title: Gallows

text: During the era of public execution in London, England, a prominent gallows stood at Tyburn, on what is now Marble Arch. Later executions occurred outside Newgate Prison, where the Old Bailey now stands.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park Service administers a small portion of the north end of the island as the Governors Island National Monument, including two former military fortifications named Fort Jay and Castle Williams. The Trust for Governors Island operates the remaining , including 52 historic buildings, as a public park. About of the land area is fill, added in the early 1900s to the south of the original island.


title: Governors Island

text: The native Lenape originally referred to Governors Island as Paggank ("nut island") because of the area's rich collection of chestnut, hickory, and oak trees; it is believed that this space was originally used for seasonal foraging and hunting. The name was translated into the Dutch Noten Eylandt, then Anglicized into Nutten Island, before being renamed Governor's Island by the late 18th century. The island's use as a military installation dates to 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, when Continental Army troops raised defensive works on the island. From 1783 to 1966, the island was a United States Army post, serving mainly as a training ground for troops, though it also served as a strategic defense point during wartime. The island then served as a major United States Coast Guard installation until 1996. Following its decommissioning as a military base, there were several plans for redeveloping Governors Island. It was sold to the public for a nominal sum in 2003, and opened for public use in 2005.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island has become a popular destination for the public, attracting more than 800,000 visitors per year as of 2018. In addition to the public park, Governors Island includes free arts and cultural events, as well as recreational activities. The New York Harbor School, a public high school with a maritime-focused curriculum, has been on the island since 2010. The island can only be accessed by ferries from Brooklyn and Manhattan, and there are no full-time residents . The island was only accessible to the public during the summer until 2021, when it started operating year-round.


title: Governors Island

text: The Native Lenape refer to the island as "Paggank," "Pagganck", or "Pagganack." All of these names literally translate to "Nut Island", likely in reference to the many chestnut, hickory, and oak trees on the island. The Dutch explorer Adriaen Block called it "Noten Eylandt", a translation, and this was Anglicized into "Nutten Island", a name that continued to be used until the late 18th century. The name "Governor's Island", with an apostrophe, stems from the British colonial era, when the colonial assembly reserved the island for the exclusive use of New York's royal governors. The current name without an apostrophe was made official in 1784.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island was initially much smaller than it is today. It had many inlets along its shoreline, and groves of hardwood trees, from which the island's native name is derived. There is insufficient evidence as to whether Governors Island contained any permanent Lenape settlements, or was used mainly for hunting and gathering. In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to observe what was then called "Paggank". One hundred years later, in May 1624, Noten Eylandt was the landing place of the first settlers in New Netherland. They had arrived from the Dutch Republic with the ship "New Netherland" under the command of Cornelius Jacobsen May, who disembarked on the island with thirty families in order to take possession of the New Netherland territory. For this reason, the New York State Senate and Assembly recognize Governors Island as the birthplace of the state of New York, and also certify the island as the place on which the planting of the "legal-political guaranty of tolerance onto the North American continent" took place.


title: Governors Island

text: In 1633, the fifth director of New Netherland, Wouter van Twiller, arrived with a 104-man regiment on Noten Eylandt, and later commandeered the island for his personal use. He secured his farm by drawing up a deed on June 16, 1637, which was signed by two Lenape leaders, Cacapeteyno and Pewihas, on behalf of their community at Keshaechquereren, situated in present-day New Jersey. Van Twiller cultivated a farm on the island, even building a windmill on the land, until he returned to the Netherlands in 1642. The windmill was demolished possibly by 1648, when colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant burned it down after seeing it in inoperable condition. Following this, Noten Eylandt is said to have been used as a recreation ground by the Dutch between 1652 and 1664. There is little other documentation on the use of the island during the Dutch colonial period, other than the fact that it has remained in public ownership since van Twiller left New Netherland.


title: Governors Island

text: New Netherland was conditionally ceded to the English in 1664, and the English renamed the settlement New York in June 1665. By 1674, the British had total control of the island. At this point, the eastern shore of the island was separated from Brooklyn by a shallow channel that could be easily traversed at low tide. This became known as Buttermilk Channel, since women would use the channel to travel to Manhattan island and sell buttermilk. By 1680, Nutten Island contained a single house and pasture to be used by colonial governors.


title: Governors Island

text: The British started calling Nutten Island "Governor's Island" (with an apostrophe) in 1698 and reserved the island for the exclusive use of colonial governors. Four years later, when Edward Hyde, Lord of Cornbury took office as New York colonial governor, he built a mansion on Governor's Island, though evidence of this mansion no longer exists. Later, governor William Cosby used the island as a preserve to breed and hunt pheasants. Other governors leased out the island for profit, and for a short period around 1710, Governor's Island was designated as a quarantine station for refugees. Otherwise, Governor's Island mostly remained untouched until the American Revolutionary War started in 1775.


title: Governors Island

text: The first plans for fortifications on Governor's Island were made in 1741, in anticipation of a war with France, but the fortifications were never built. The island was first used by a military encampment in 1755 during the French and Indian War, when Sir William Pepperell led the 51st Regiment of Foot onto Governor's Island. Other regiments soon followed, and by the mid-1760s, there was documentation of a fort on the island as well as several surrounding earthworks. Further plans to improve the fortifications on Governor's Island were devised in 1766 by British military engineer John Montresor. These plans were never realized, even though the British had asked for funding for these fortifications in 1774.


title: Governors Island

text: After the American Revolution started, Continental Army General George Washington assigned General Charles Lee to create a defensive plan for New York Harbor. Lee's plan called for several defensive forts in Brooklyn, in Manhattan's Battery, and on Governor's Island. On the night of April 9, 1776, Continental Army General Israel Putnam came to the island to add earthworks and 40 cannons, in anticipation of the return of the British, who had fled New York City the year before. The island's defenses continued to be improved over the following months, and on July 12, 1776, the defenses engaged HMS "Phoenix" and HMS "Rose" as they made a run up the Hudson River to the Tappan Zee. Even though the British were able to travel as far north as the Tappan Zee, the colonists' cannon inflicted enough damage to make the British commanders cautious of entering the East River, and the fortifications contributed to the success of Washington's retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan after the Battle of Long Island, when the British Army attempted to take Brooklyn Heights during the largest battle of the war, around August 27, 1776.


title: Governors Island

text: In what appeared to be a strategic miscalculation, the rebels' munitions caused little to no damage to the British ships that were waiting some downstream. Two days after the British withdrawal to Manhattan, the Continental Army forces withdrew from Brooklyn and Governor's Island, and the British took back Governor's Island. From September 2 to 14, 1776, the new British garrison engaged volleys with Washington's guns on the Battery in front of Fort George in Manhattan. On September 6, the Americans' unsuccessful attempt to detonate the submersible "Turtle" at the island was the first documented submarine attack in history. The fort, along with the rest of New York City, was held by the British for the rest of the war until Evacuation Day in 1783. During this time, the British continued to improve Governor's Island's defenses.


title: Governors Island

text: At the end of the Revolution, Governor's Island was transferred from the Crown to the state of New York. The island saw no military usage, instead being used as a hotel and racetrack. The quality of the fortifications, which were mostly made of earth, began to decline. The name of Nutten Island was changed to "Governors Island" by act of the United States legislature on March 29, 1784. Governors Island was conveyed to the New York State Board of Regents in 1790 "for the encouragement of education ... unless needed for military purposes." Little else is known about the island's use during this time.


title: Governors Island

text: By the mid-1790s, increased military tensions renewed an interest in fortifying New York Harbor, and a U.S. congressional committee had drawn a map of possible locations for the First System of fortifications to protect major American urban centers. Governors Island was one of the first locations where defenses were built. As such, the agreement with the Board of Regents was voided in 1794, and some $250,000 in federal funding was allocated to the construction of defenses on Governors Island in 1794 and 1795. Fort Jay was built starting in 1794 on the site of the earlier Revolutionary War earthworks. Work proceeded despite concerns that Fort Jay's low elevation made it vulnerable to being captured. Fort Jay, a square four-bastioned fort, was made of earthworks and timber, two impermanent materials that deteriorated soon after the threat of war went away, and by 1805 it had significantly degraded. Ownership of the island was transferred to the federal government on February 15, 1800.


title: Governors Island

text: Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Williams, placed in charge of New York Harbor defenses in the early 1800s, proposed several new fortifications around the harbor as part of the Second System of fortifications. Unlike the First System defenses, the new fortifications were to be made of masonry to preclude deterioration, and they included increased firepower and improved weaponry. Fort Jay was rebuilt from 1806 to 1809 in its current five-pointed star shape, and was renamed Fort Columbus shortly afterward. A second major fortification, Castle Williams, was a circular battery built between 1807 and 1811 on a rocky shoal extending from the northwest corner of the island, to the north of Fort Columbus. A third fortification, the South Battery or Half-Moon Battery (now building 298), was built to the south of Fort Columbus on the island's eastern shore in 1812. The War of 1812 commenced shortly after the completion of these defenses, though the fortifications never saw combat.


title: Governors Island

text: After the War of 1812, the island did not see much development. Rather, it was used for garrisoning troops starting 1821. The troops garrisoned on the island were deployed to wars four times in the rest of the 19th century. The New York Arsenal, a military division that dealt with artillery and was separate from the Army, moved to the island in 1832 and started constructing an armory building three years later. Construction of structures for the Arsenal continued for several decades. To distinguish the Arsenal's and the Army's structures, the former's buildings were designed in the Greek Revival style, such as the Admiral's House built in 1843.


title: Governors Island

text: The Army still retained a military presence on the island, and in the 1830s, it constructed several new buildings, such as officers' barracks and a hospital. The Army also added masonry seawalls and opened an "administrative and training center" starting from the 1850s. The erection of the recruiting center and barracks resulted in the creation of Nolan Park, to the east for Fort Columbus. Together with these changes, a grassy area was cleared between Fort Columbus and Castle Williams to allow better vantage points should defensive attacks be launched. Other Army structures included a muster station that operated throughout the Mexican–American War and American Civil War, as well as a music school. Still, most of the troops continued to live in tents. To accommodate Army personnel's religious requirements, a small Gothic Revival chapel for Protestants was built on Governors Island in 1846.


title: Governors Island

text: No new permanent buildings were built specifically for the Civil War, though a temporary hospital was built. The hospital treated victims of cholera and yellow fever in epidemics during the 1850s and 1860s. During the war, Governors Island was used mostly as a support facility to muster soldiers, though the fortifications were still operational. Castle Williams held Confederate prisoners of war and Fort Columbus held captured Confederate officers. The austere accommodations frequently held over a thousand prisoners, and they frequently escaped and swam across to "mainland" Manhattan. In 1863, in the midst of the New York City draft riots, protesters unsuccessfully attempted to take over the island when Army troops were deployed to Manhattan.


title: Governors Island

text: After the war, Castle Williams was used as a military stockade and became the East Coast counterpart to military prisons at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Alcatraz Island, California. Infrastructure and facilities were repaired, unused structures were destroyed, and in 1875 a new munitions warehouse was built north of Fort Columbus. Significant development occurred on the formerly undeveloped northern and eastern sides of the island: the old wood-frame barracks outside Fort Columbus were replaced, and new officers' quarters were built in Nolan Park, east of Fort Columbus. The seawalls on the north and west sides of the island were rehabilitated or extended to create additional buildable land. During this period of expansion, in 1870, a particularly severe yellow fever epidemic occurred on the island, sickening hundreds and requiring a quarantine. The structures that hosted yellow fever patients were later demolished. Despite these changes, in 1873 Fort Columbus and Castle Williams were still described as operable.


title: Governors Island

text: In 1878, Fort Columbus became a major Army administrative center, and Army officers' families started to move in. Other recreational options on the island were tennis courts in Nolan Park; a South Battery community garden; golf links; and a promenade for bicycling. A cemetery was also present on the island, and initially hosted yellow fever and cholera victims, but interments were halted in 1878 and all of the remains were moved to Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn by 1886. The secluded ambiance of Governors Island was altered somewhat when the first solid waste incinerator in the U.S. was built on Governors Island in 1885. Subsequent construction in the 1890s and 1900s added several officers' residences to the island. Starting in 1888, there was a movement to convert Governors Island into a public park for Lower Manhattan residents. Though park proponents argued that Central Park and Prospect Park were too far away for Lower Manhattan residents, the plan did not succeed.


title: Governors Island

text: The Army started planning to expand the island in the late 1880s and the 1890s. The U.S. Secretary of War, Elihu Root, contemplated such an expansion so that the island would have enough space to accommodate a full battalion. Using material excavated from the first line of the New York City Subway, the Army Corps of Engineers added of fill, extending Governors Island to the south. The work was mostly finished by 1909-1910 and was declared complete by January 1913. When the project was finished, it expanded the island's total area by , to .


title: Governors Island

text: Secretary Root also retained the services of Beaux-Arts architect Charles Follen McKim to redesign nearly every structure on Governors Island, as well as create a plan for the island's topography. McKim presented plans in 1902 and 1907 to tear down all of the old buildings and provide for symmetrical building layouts. These plans were never executed.


title: Governors Island

text: In addition, Root changed Fort Columbus's name back to its historic title, Fort Jay, in 1904. The Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurion replaced the former chapel in 1907.


title: Governors Island

text: The newly constructed southern part of Governors Island was initially used as an airstrip. In the world's first over-water flight in October 1909, Wilbur Wright flew from Governors Island, over the west side of Manhattan, then back to the island. The following year, Glenn Curtiss completed a flight from Albany to New York City by landing on the island. An aviation training center even operated from 1916 to 1917. In honor of these aviators, the Early Birds Monument at Liggett Hall was dedicated in 1954.


title: Governors Island

text: Despite the island's expansion, little development happened immediately, but significant construction occurred during World War I. Governors Island is sometimes mentioned as the location of the United States' first overt military action during the war, on April 6, 1917, when troops from the island captured German vessels in New York Harbor minutes after the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany. Barracks, tents, and temporary wooden buildings were built on the original northern portion of the island, while the new southern section housed warehouses and other ancillary facilities which collectively stored $75 million worth of material. The structures were all connected by the Governors Island Railroad, which consisted of numerous sidings for shunting. The railroad had been reduced to and was dubbed the "World's Shortest Railroad" by the time it was torn up in 1931, though a train chassis remained buried on the island through the 2010s.


title: Governors Island

text: In 1920, upon the end of World War I, the Army restructured its internal organization so that Governors Island was now the headquarters of the Second Corps Area. Few structures were built immediately after the end of the war, though the Army maintained the existing buildings and continued to utilize the island as a military prison. Some of the wooden barracks structures deteriorated rapidly, prompting objections from congressional delegations. A school for Army soldiers' children was opened on Governors Island in 1926.


title: Governors Island

text: In 1927, General Hanson Edward Ely commenced a major program to build several mostly Georgian revival structures on Governors Island. The new structures included a movie theater, a YMCA, an "officer's club", and a public school. The three-story Liggett Hall (also known as Building 400), a military barracks spanning nearly the entire width of the original island, was built on the site of former World War I warehouses, and was one of the world's largest barracks upon its completion in 1928. Afterward, the Army hired McKim, Mead & White to build a "barracks district" near Liggett Hall. During the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration landscaped much of the island and reinforced many existing structures, hiring up to 5,000 workers in the process. Some of the WPA's projects included the restoration of the General's House, as well as the eradication of invasive Japanese beetles. The Army also incrementally repaved Governors Island's roads so they could accommodate modern vehicles, and constructed garages.


title: Governors Island

text: An Army community developed on Governors Island during the mid-20th century. The island had three chapels in addition to the movie theater, YMCA, and "officer's club". Recreation was also popular; one common sport was polo, a relic from the 19th century when travel on the island was by horseback. In 1920, a polo playing field was established on the island's Parade Ground. Though a golf course had been built in 1903 near Fort Jay, a new polo-and-golf course called the Governors Island Golf Course was built circa 1925–1926. The course was located on the grounds of Fort Jay, and was sometimes called the "world's crookedest" golf course due to its enclosed nature in a confined space. Tennis courts and swimming pools were also present on Governors Island. Different groupings of recreational areas were generally located according to military hierarchy. The number of houses of worship increased as a Roman Catholic church was built in 1942, followed by a synagogue in 1959.


title: Governors Island

text: World War II resulted in another hierarchical change on Governors Island, turning it into an administrative center. In 1939, the island became the headquarters of the U.S. First Army, and two years later the Eastern Defense Command was also established on the island. In conjunction, 72 temporary structures were erected on the island. Governors Island became a U.S. Army recruitment center in 1941, and was processing 1,500 recruits daily by 1942. This volume proved to be overwhelming due to the island's isolation. In October 1942 the recruitment station was moved to Grand Central Palace, near Grand Central Terminal. Following the end of World War II in 1945, Governors Island continued to be the U.S. First Army's headquarters, and few substantive changes were made. Some buildings were razed in the southwest corner of the island, and an administrative office was destroyed to make way for a parking lot, but overall the building layout remained relatively untouched.


title: Governors Island

text: Prior to the construction of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn in 1930, the island was considered as a site for a municipal airport. In 1927, U.S. Representative and future New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia advocated for a commercial airport to be placed in Governors Island, since it was closer to Manhattan than the proposed site of Floyd Bennett Field. A bill in the U.S. House to create a Governors Island airport was voted down. The island also hosted the Governors Island Army Airfield for some time after World War II until the 1960s.


title: Governors Island

text: In 1940, work started on the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, which passes underwater offshore of the island's northeast corner. A ventilation building designed by McKim, Mead & White is connected to the island by a causeway. Initially, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority chairman Robert Moses had proposed a bridge across the harbor, but the War Department quashed the plan, calling it a possible navigational threat to the Brooklyn Navy Yard located upriver. A subsequent plan to build a ramp from Governors Island to the bridge was rejected as well. The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel opened to traffic in 1950 without any other physical connection to the island.


title: Governors Island

text: In 1963, Department of Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara started studying the feasibility of closing redundant military installations, especially naval ship yards, in order to save money. The Department of Defense announced in May 1964 that it was considering closing Fort Jay, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Despite protests from workers at the three facilities, McNamara announced that November that Fort Jay would be one of nearly a hundred military installations that would be closed. In February 1965, the United States Coast Guard announced that it had asked for permission to move to Fort Jay in order to consolidate its facilities within New York City. The Coast Guard saw the island as an opportunity to consolidate and provide more facilities for its schools, and as a base for its regional and Atlantic Ocean operations.


title: Governors Island

text: On December 31, 1965, the Army base was formally decommissioned and the installation became a Coast Guard base. At that point, most of the World War II-era buildings on the island's southern tip were still standing. The Coast Guard consolidated its operations at Governors Island, making the island the Coast Guard's largest installation. The island was used as a base of operations for the Atlantic Area Command and its regional Third District command. By 1985, the island had a population of 4,000 personnel and 1,000 family members. It was also homeport for U.S. Coast Guard cutters, including USCGC "Gallatin" (WHEC-721), USCGC "Morgenthau" (WHEC-722), and USCGC "Dallas" (WHEC-716).


title: Governors Island

text: The Coast Guard split the island's operations among seven divisions, and began making various improvements such as adding a boat marina and the world's first search-and-rescue training school. By 1972, the Coast Guard had opened some apartment blocks on the southern portion of Governors Island, which replaced the temporary World War II-era buildings on that site. The golf course and open space in the center of the island were preserved during this wave of development. Liggett Hall was converted to classrooms, and other historic structures were preserved and restored. A community of Coast Guard members began to develop on the island, and it came to include a fire and police department, banks, stores, churches, an elementary school, a movie theater, a motel, and even a bowling alley and a Burger King.


title: Governors Island

text: During this time, several notable events took place at Governors Island. During Liberty Weekend in 1986, President Ronald Reagan traveled to the island for a ceremony to relight the Statue of Liberty upon completion of the statue's restoration. On December 8, 1988, Reagan and President-elect George Bush met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on the island, in Reagan's last U.S.-Soviet summit as president. In July 1993, the United Nations held discussions between Haitian political leaders at the South Battery, which resulted in the Governors Island Accord being signed. The Coast Guard era also coincided with two landmark designations. On February 4, 1985, a portion of Governors Island was designated a National Historic Landmark. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission created the Governors Island Historic District on June 18, 1996.


title: Governors Island

text: The United States Department of Transportation, the parent of the Coast Guard, identified the Governors Island base for closure in 1995. The move was part of a series of Coast Guard base closures that would collectively save $100 million a year. Governors Island alone cost $60 million a year to maintain. By 1996, the Coast Guard had relocated all functions and residential personnel to offices and bases, but left a caretaker detachment to jointly maintain the island with the General Services Administration (GSA) while its future was determined. Other federal agencies were loath to take control of the island. Upon the announcement of the base's closure in 1995, President Bill Clinton offered to give up the island for $1 if Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Governor George Pataki could agree to reserve the island for public use. The city was initially reluctant to take up Clinton's offer because it would not have been financially beneficial to the city. The issue was exacerbated when the Balanced Budget Act was passed in 1997, stipulating that the GSA sell the island at a fair market value by 2002. The island's sale was expected to net the federal government $500 million.


title: Governors Island

text: With the announcement of the Coast Guard base's closure, officials and developers began offering plans for development. Mayor Giuliani considered building a casino and hotel on Governors Island. Other plans entailed preserving the island as a museum; converting it into a public park; establishing a free-trade zone; and building an educational campus, a prison, an amusement park, a golf courses, or even a nightclub district. In 1996, the Van Alen Institute hosted an ideas competition called "Public Property", attracting over 200 submissions. An agreement between the city and state to maintain the island for public use was reached in 2000. Throughout this time, the federal government continued to maintain the island for $20 million a year.


title: Governors Island

text: In a last-minute act while in office, President Clinton designated a area, including Fort Jay and Castle Williams, as Governors Island National Monument on January 19, 2001. The monument would be administered by the National Park Service. The following year, it was announced that Governors Island would become public property, though the transfer of the island was delayed due to the 2002 New York gubernatorial election. On January 31, 2003, the rest of the island's 150 acres, as well as of underwater land, were sold for a "nominal sum" (reported to be $1) and placed under the management of a joint city-state agency, the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC). The transfer included deed restrictions which prohibit permanent housing or casinos on the island. The agreements also stipulated that of land had to be used as parkland, and another had to be used for "educational, civic or cultural" purposes. In practice, the deed restriction precludes most long-term development on Governors Island.


title: Governors Island

text: Progress on redevelopment was slow, but in early 2006, Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a competition for ideas to preserve Governors Island. During this period, the National Park Service and GIPEC began conducting restorations on parts of Governors Island. Major construction was necessary to convert the island for public use, such as repairs to the seawall and removal of asbestos. By 2006, the GIPEC had awarded leases to its first two tenants. The public was first allowed to visit the island in 2005, and eight thousand visitors came that year. At first, Governors Island was only open during summer weekends, except for a few concerts. Bikes and ferry services were made free in order to attract visitors. Art exhibits were later added.


title: Governors Island

text: In mid-2007, GIPEC announced five finalist design teams, namely West 8, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Rogers Marvel Architects, Quennell Rothschild & Partners, and SMWM. West 8 ultimately won the contest. The plan included of open space, as well as provided for the restoration of the historic district and a new park on the island's southern portion. Artificial hills were part of West 8's plan for the island, as were free bicycle rentals. Since the island was windy, West 8 designed their proposed topography to provide moments of shelter. Some plans were not implemented; these included an aerial gondola system designed by Santiago Calatrava, as well as a proposal by Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE) at Columbia University to physically connect Manhattan to Governors Island using landfill. A proposal to convert Castle Williams into a theater in the style of London's Globe Theatre was designed by architect Norman Foster in 2005, but was deemed unsuitable for the castle's design. Additionally, in 2008, there were unrealized plans to relocate the security and ticketing checkpoints for the Liberty Island and Ellis Island tourist ferries from the Battery to Governors Island, bringing as many as 500,000 additional people to Governors Island each year.


title: Governors Island

text: The number of tenants on Governors Island started to increase, though they numbered fewer than 1,000 as of 2014. In 2009, a commercial organic farm, operated by the non-profit organization Added Value, was launched. In 2010, the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School relocated from Bushwick, Brooklyn, to building 550 on Governors Island. Also opened that year were artist studios run by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and housed in a portion of Building 110.


title: Governors Island

text: Demolition of old structures on Governors Island began in 2008 with the destruction of a derelict motel. In April 2010, the city took control of the island's development, and GIPEC was succeeded by the Trust for Governors Island. The city also unveiled a new master development plan that preserved the historic north end of Governors Island, developed the middle and southern portions of the island as a park, and reserved the western and eastern sections for private development. The administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg had provided funding for the first phase of construction. Construction on the $260 million park started May 24, 2012, and the Coast Guard-era military housing complexes were demolished.


title: Governors Island

text: As part of phase 1 of the master plan, Soissons Landing was upgraded with new ferry docks and a waiting plaza, while the Parade Ground was regraded for lawn sports, while the Historic District gained concessions. In 2013, construction started on a new potable water connection (which replaced a locally illegal connection from the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel) as well as repairs to the seawall. The Liggett Terrace courtyard was built in 2014, as was Hammock Grove and a new play structure. The Oyster Pavilion opened in June 2015, followed by the Hills section of the park in July 2016. The island became more popular over the years. While it attracted 275,000 visitors in 2009, over 800,000 people came to the island in 2018.


title: Governors Island

text: In September 2016, the Trust for Governors Island and the New York City Economic Development Corporation started an online survey to develop ideas for Governors Island as a year-round destination. Two years later, mayor Bill de Blasio opened a formal process to rezone the remaining un-redeveloped portions of Governors Island for dormitory, office, or educational use. The proposed rezoning drew opposition from activists who wanted Governors Island to be kept largely as-is. Also in 2018, the city's government held the NYCx Governors Island Connectivity Challenge, asking three companies to test out 5G technology on Governors Island; if the project was successful, the city's government would pursue a wider rollout of 5G in New York City.


title: Governors Island

text: In September 2019, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's expanded Arts Center at Governors Island opened in a renovated former ordnance warehouse at the north end of the island. The new Arts Center features gallery, exhibition, and performance space as well as studio areas for up to 40 artists. The opening of the Arts Center added LMCC to the island's community of year-round tenants, which also includes Billion Oyster Project, an organization to restore New York Harbor's oyster population and biodiversity; the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, a high school focused on maritime vocational education; and QC NY, a destination day spa. In October 2019, city officials proposed constructing a climate change research center on the island. In March 2020, the Trust for Governors Island issued a Request for Proposals seeking arts and culture organizations to become year-round tenants in two historic buildings in Nolan Park.


title: Governors Island

text: The American Indian Community House, a non-profit that works to improve the well-being of the American Indian community, and increase the visibility of the culture of the urban American Indian. The AICH uses the Admiral's House to present exhibitions, performances, and other cultural and educational programs.


title: Governors Island

text: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City during 2020, the start of the island's 2020 visitor season was delayed from May 1 to July 15, and a timed ticketing system was implemented for the season, limiting visitation to 5,000 per day. In September 2021, mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the island would operate year-round rather than from May through October. Though there were no full-time residents at the time, the Trust for Governors Island started expanding nighttime access to the island following the announcement. Additionally, two organizations announced plans to host about a dozen residents by 2022. The QC NY spa opened inside a former barracks on the north side of the island in March 2022, and the Gitano Island beach club opened that July.


title: Governors Island

text: Today, Governors Island comprises of land. About are operated by the National Park Service while the rest are under the jurisdiction of The Trust for Governors Island. The island is about west of Brooklyn and south of Manhattan. Politically it is part of the borough of Manhattan, and shares the ZIP Code 10004 with the blocks around South Ferry in Manhattan. Governors Island contains several named streets, mostly in the northern part of the island. The entirety of the island is surrounded by a waterfront promenade.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island's shape is roughly characterized as resembling an ice cream cone. The northern part of the island is original and can be described as the ice cream, while the artificial southern section can be described as the cone. Functionally, the island is bisected by Division Road and Liggett Hall, which separate the NPS-operated northern section from the parkland in the southern section. The highest natural point on Governors Island is above mean water level at the base of Fort Jay, in the northern portion of the island. The southern section formerly was lowland located a maximum of above mean sea level, but since the construction of the new parkland in the 2010s it has contained the Hills, which range from high. This construction, part of the island's Park and Public Space Master Plan, included various measures to make the island more resilient against the effects of climate change, like raising much of the south island out of the 100-year flood plain, and replacing the old sea wall with a layer of rip-rap to better mitigate wave action.


title: Governors Island

text: Several fortifications were built on Governors Island to protect New York Harbor. These worked in conjunction with Castle Clinton at the southern tip of Manhattan, as well as Fort Wood on Liberty Island, and Fort Gibson on Ellis Island. The existing fortifications were meant to protect the city during the War of 1812.


title: Governors Island

text: Fort Jay, located at the center of the original (northern) portion of Governors Island, is the oldest, having been built in 1794. It was built on the highest point of the island, with a glacis sloping down from all sides. The initial fortifications degraded to such a point that they were replaced in 1806. Fort Jay was initially named for New York governor John Jay, but after being rebuilt, was known as Fort Columbus until about 1904. The rebuilt fort, which reused the original glacis and many of the original walls, comprised "an enclosed pentagonal work, with four bastions of masonry, calculated for one hundred guns", and initially included a 230-person brick barracks. Though Fort Jay has been renovated multiple times throughout its history, its current appearance largely stems from renovations in the 1830s. The walls of Fort Jay are made of sandstone and granite, with an arrow-shaped ravelin on the northern wall. The fortification is surrounded by a moat that is now dry.


title: Governors Island

text: Castle Williams was built from 1807 through 1811 on the northwestern corner of the island, on what was then a submerged rock. Named for USACE chief engineer Jonathan Williams, it is a cylindrical four-tiered sandstone building measuring high by in diameter. The walls taper from from bottom to top. The building is four-tiered, with 13 casemates on each tier each having a capacity of two cannons, for a total capacity of 104 cannons. Two structures inside the southern side of the fort were removed in 1900.


title: Governors Island

text: A third structure, called the South Battery or Half-Moon Battery, is located at the southeast corner of the original island near Buttermilk Channel, and was built before the War of 1812. The arrowhead-shaped South Battery contained 13 barbette guns, mounted on the parapet and facing Buttermilk Channel, as well as a barracks inside. It was then used as an officer's mess and Catholic chapel by 1878; as a court-martial room by the 1880s; and as an amusement hall after a 1904 renovation. From the 1930s, South Battery was also used as an officers' club.


title: Governors Island

text: There are four open landscapes in the historic northern part of Governors Island. The northernmost is the glacis of Fort Jay, a treeless grassy area that slopes down from all sides of the fort. The glacis formed a buffer between the walls of Fort Jay and the moat at the bottom of the slope. The glacis contained a polo field, as well as the Governors Island Golf Course.


title: Governors Island

text: To the southeast of Fort Jay is Nolan Park, a formal trapezoidal area with tree-lined walks that is surrounded by former officers' quarters and administrative buildings. The park's eastern border curves southwest toward the southern end of the area, while the western and northern borders are roughly perpendicular to each other. Nolan Park's current configuration dates to the 1870s, and it was named after Major General Dennis E. Nolan, who was First Army's commander from 1933 to 1936. A bandstand formerly existed on the site.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island's Parade Ground is located directly west of Nolan Park and south of Fort Jay, and is about . The parade ground slopes downward, away from Fort Jay and toward the waterfront to the south. It was used as both a military training ground and as an execution site for prisoners stockaded at Castle Williams. The golf course formerly extended into the parade ground, though remnants of the golf course still exist.


title: Governors Island

text: The fourth open landscape is the triangle between Clayton and Hay Roads, also known as Colonels Row Green or Hay Park, located southwest of Fort Jay and northeast of Liggett Hall. It was created in the early 20th century and forms a wedge shape between Hay Road to the east, which forms the island's original southwest shoreline, and Clayton Road and Liggett Hall to the southwest.


title: Governors Island

text: The southern portion of Governors Island includes a park that covers more than . The north end of the park contains Hammock Grove, a landscaped area of rolling hills with over 60 tree species. The grove's hills are located up to above mean sea level, preventing it from flooding. The grove itself is and contains 50 hammocks. Immediately to the west is the Play Lawn, which contains two turf fields that can be used for baseball. The paths in this portion of Governors Island are meandering, in a style similar to Frederick Law Olmsted's designs of Central Park and Prospect Park, which incorporate winding paths to reinforce a secluded atmosphere.


title: Governors Island

text: The south end of the park contains the Hills section of Governors Island, which covers 10 acres. The Hills consists of four hills that are high, and are made partially of reclaimed debris from the demolition of the island's former residential towers. From shortest to tallest, the hills are the 26-foot Grassy Hill; the Discovery Hill, with site-specific artwork; the 40-foot Slide Hill, which contains four long slides; and the 70-foot Outlook Hill, which contains an observation area with view of New York Harbor. The Hills includes over 41,000 shrubs and 860 new trees. The Hills cost $70 million to build; the construction of the Hills was funded in part by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who donated $15 million.


title: Governors Island

text: At the southernmost tip of Governors Island is Picnic Point. This area contains grills and picnic tables close to the waterfront.


title: Governors Island

text: When the Coast Guard abandoned Governors Island in 1996, there were 49 buildings built before 1917, mostly in the northern part of the island, and 121 buildings built after 1917, mostly in the southern part. The southern part was mostly residential and industrial, while the northern part was mixed-use. The island was relatively low-density with extensive open space.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island contains several clusters of low-rise officers' housing, now mostly unoccupied, though some structures are used as exhibits or for administrative purposes. The two largest sections of housing in the historical northern part of the island are Colonel's Row (buildings 403–410), as well as the structures around Nolan Park (buildings 1–20).


title: Governors Island

text: Nolan Park contains several structures that are historical in their own right. The Admiral's House/Commanding Officer's Quarters (building 1), a two-story Colonial Revival brick house built in 1843, is listed separately on the NRHP and as a city landmark. To the north is the Governor's House (building 2), a two-story Georgian brick house built . The southeast corner of Nolan Park contains the Block House (building 9), a two-story Greek Revival building built in 1843, which served initially as a post hospital and later as administrative offices and officers' quarters. Buildings 3-5 (built in the 1850s), 6-11 and 14-18 (built in 1878–1879), and 19-20 (built in the 1890s) all served as two-company officers' quarters. Building 12, a three-story Georgian Revival brick apartment complex, was constructed in 1928 or 1931 to house the 16th Infantry Regiment.


title: Governors Island

text: The eastern side of Colonel's Row contains eight individual officers' quarters numbered 403 from north to south, which initially faced the original shoreline southwest of Hays Road. The first structures to be built, buildings 405–408, were designed in accordance with the same Quartermaster General plans, and were built in 1893-1895 as two-family duplexes. This was followed by buildings 403–404, built in 1904-1906 also to the same plan. The two-and-a-half-story building 409, a Colonial Revival structure, was designed as Bachelor Officers' Quarters and was completed in 1910, while building 410 was built as a duplex officer's quarters in 1917 and is the only structure of the Modified Arts and Crafts design on the island.


title: Governors Island

text: The southwestern side of Colonel's Row is dominated by Liggett Hall (building 400), a three-to-four-story barracks that spans nearly the entire width of Governors Island, measuring long with two wings extending south. Initially built in 1930 for the 16th Infantry, it was among the largest military barracks in the world when completed, and was the first Army building intended to house an entire regiment. The building contains a ground-level arcade that bisects the first and second floors, as well as an annex to the southeast. Two nearly identical Georgian Revival structures, building 550 (now the New York Harbor School) to the north and building 333 to the south, are located directly adjacent to Liggett Hall. The three-story structures are both U-shaped with the wings surrounding a front courtyard; they were built in 1932 as detachment housing for the First Army before being used by the Coast Guard as classrooms. Nearby are a smaller pair of nearly identical -story family housing blocks for the 16th Regiment, built in 1940. These consist of building 555 to the north of building 550, and building 315 near the southern waterfront south of the YMCA and theater.


title: Governors Island

text: Several other residential structures exist throughout the northern part of Governors Island. Buildings 111 and 112, a pair of three-story neo-Georgian structures on the island's east side, were built in 1934 to a design by Rogers & Poor. These served as officers' quarters for the 16th Regiment, accommodating additional officers once Liggett Hall was full. Inside Fort Jay were four buildings numbered 202, 206, 210, and 214; these were nearly identical Greek Revival barracks that housed soldiers at the fort. The north side of the island, between Castle Williams to the west and Soissons Dock to the east, contains the Fort Jay Nurses' Quarters (building 114), a -story neo-Georgian brick-with-concrete structure designed by Rogers & Poor; this later became bachelor officers' quarters as well. Officers' quarters were also located in building 135, a former storehouse along the northeastern waterfront built in 1835.


title: Governors Island

text: Formerly, residential apartment blocks ranging up to 11 stories tall were located on the southern half of Governors Island. There were 594 total apartments each with 2 to 5 bedrooms, spread out across three apartment complexes. Unlike the housing on the island's north side, these structures were not historically protected. The largest of these structures, the 11-story, 165-unit Cunningham Apartments (building 877), was located on the island's north side. Built in 1968, it was imploded in 2013, something uncommon in the city.


title: Governors Island

text: Many of the former residences located in Nolan Park and Colonels Row now serve as seasonal homes to a variety of arts and culture organizations that typically offer free programs for visitors during the Island's public season. During the 2020 season, indoor programs were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. As a result, many of the organizations based in the former homes joined the Governors Island Residency Initiative to offer the houses as free workspace for artists and cultural workers.


title: Governors Island

text: Religious practice on Governors Island dates to the opening of the first chapel in 1846. There later came to be three houses of worship on Governors Island. The Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurion (building 13), a two-story limestone structure in the southern part of Nolan Park, was designed by Charles C. Haight and built in 1907, replacing the old 1846 chapel. Throughout the chapel's history, chaplains have been assigned by several different entities, namely the Army, Coast Guard, and Trinity Church. Maintenance was performed by Trinity Church until 1986, when it turned operations over to the Coast Guard under condition that Trinity Church would resume maintenance duties if and when the Coast Guard left the island.


title: Governors Island

text: A Catholic church called Our Lady, Star of the Sea was built in 1942. The one-story clapboard structure is located at Clayton and Comfort Roads on the north shore of Governors Island.


title: Governors Island

text: A synagogue housing Congregation Shaare Shomayim was established in 1960 in what is known as building S-40. The one-story clapboard building, located east of Barry Road on the island's east shore, was initially a "temporary" building used for storage.


title: Governors Island

text: Several buildings were built as part of the Arsenal but have not been used as residential structures, instead being utilized for office or storage space. These include buildings 104 and 107, originally used as storehouses; 105, a two-winged structure used as an armory and office; and 110, used as a quartermaster's depot and storehouse. Building 110 is now home to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Arts Center at Governors Island, which opened in September 2019. All were built in brick from the 1850s through 1870s. Buildings 106 (pump house) and 108 and 109 (offices) were built during the 1940s in the same style as the other structures, though building 109 replaced a wooden structure built in 1918. Pershing Hall (building 125), a three-story brick building north of buildings 107 and 108 on the northern waterfront, served as the headquarters for the First Army when built in 1934.


title: Governors Island

text: The waterfront contains several buildings, including building 130, the original Arsenal workshop, as well as building 134, a modern structure which hosted offices for USCG Group: Station New York.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island also has several small vehicular garages of varying styles. Most of these garages were built in the 1930s and 1940s during the WPA's renovations of the island.


title: Governors Island

text: The northwest side of the island hosts building 515, the former Post Hospital, later used as enlisted bachelors' housing. The three-story brick-and-limestone building was constructed in 1935 to a Neo-Georgian design by McKim, Mead & White. Nearby is the Tampa Memorial Library (building S-251), a one-story rectangular wooden building. Constructed in 1908, it originally served as a storehouse and was renamed after the sinking of the cutter in 1918.


title: Governors Island

text: The area around the South Battery, south of the Parade Ground, includes several former service structures. Building 301, a single-story brick building near the waterfront, housed an elementary school called PS 26. It was originally built in 1934, though two wings were added in 1959–1960. To the west is building 324, constructed in 1926 as the Army YMCA. The War Department Theater (building 330), a two-story 700-seat theater built in 1937–1939, is located west of the YMCA, facing the southern portion of Governors Island.


title: Governors Island

text: Formerly located near the South Battery was the former Governors Island Guest House/Super 8 Motel in building 293. The one-and-a-half-story brick building was originally a quarters built in 1871–1872. The abandoned motel was demolished in 2007–2008 to expand the Parade Ground. The southern part of Governors Island contained building 785, which included a Burger King and bowling alley. Building 902 houses several FDNY fire protection vehicles.


title: Governors Island

text: The Monumental Setting for Bronze Plaque, a brick monumental bench with stone trim between buildings 406 and 407, was built by the WPA in 1938. The Early Birds Monument, originally dedicated in 1954 south of Liggett Hall, is a bronze cast of a Wright Brothers' plane's propeller on a granite base that commemorates early aviation on the island.


title: Governors Island

text: Three organizations work in partnership to maintain the island: the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, the Trust for Governors Island, and Friends of Governors Island.


title: Governors Island

text: The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is responsible for managing the that comprise the Governors Island National Monument. It works with the National Parks of New York Harbor (a branch of the National Park Service) in a public-private partnership, and is the official nonprofit partner for the National Parks of New York Harbor. The Conservancy was founded in 2003 because the NPS is legally prohibited from operating its own business ventures. The National Park Service owns and operates the monument itself.


title: Governors Island

text: The Trust for Governors Island, legally the Governors Island Corporation, is a nonprofit organization of the city government that is responsible for managing the redevelopment for the rest of the island. Its predecessor, the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC), was founded in 2003, when Governors Island was sold to the public. At the time, GIPEC was a partnership between the city and the state. In April 2010, the city entered an agreement to take full control of the island's development from the state of New York. GIPEC was then dissolved and superseded by the Trust for Governors Island. The Trust is charged with the planning, redevelopment, and ongoing operations of the of the island not included in the National Monument.


title: Governors Island

text: The Friends of Governors Island is the private nonprofit organization that manages the island's operations and programming. It was founded as the Governors Island Alliance in 1995, following the Coast Guard's decision to vacate the island. The Alliance and its 50 member organizations led a campaign to return the island to New York for public purposes. Since 2014 the Alliance has been an independent non-profit, and in 2016 it was renamed Friends of Governors Island. The Friends run volunteer and membership programs, raise money and perform advocacy for the island.