The Staten Island Ferry

How many things are truly free in this life? Well at least one remains, The Staten Island Ferry and we took advantage once during the day and again one evening, so we could view the lights of Manhattan. Interestingly enough, we rode on it just a few days before that fateful accident on October 15, 2003, when ten people were killed and seventy one were injured as one of the ferries ran into a dock. It may have been a mere coincidence, but we almost toppled over the edge of the bow when our ferry hit the dock quite hard the day we went. The only thing that kept us from going overboard was a thigh high chain across the bow. It was pretty frightening and we were stunned to hear about the October 15th accident after our return home to California and felt compassion for those touched by this new tragedy in NYC. (As I write this blog, the newest tragedy in Manhattan happened yesterday, Saturday, March 15, 2008, when a large crane fell 19 stories from the top of a high rise under construction to the streets below, crushing a brownstone and damaging other buildings with the loss of life still unnumbered.
Well back to the subject at hand, The Staten Island Ferry. This free ride gave us our first glimpse of the Statue of Libery and Ellis Island in the distance, which gave me a thrill to see an icon of history in person and not just in a book. When we reached Staten Island, we walked about a block and I'm sure there's more to the island, but we headed back to our temporary home, Manhattan!