Jim Colgan/WNYC

NEW YORK, NY October 25, 2005 —A New York City icon turns 100 years old today. Passengers have been taking the five mile, 25- minute ride longer than that, but today the Staten Island Ferry is celebrating its centennial year as a municipal service. WNYC’s Richard Hake took a ride across the harbor on the boats that carry some 70-thousand people each day.

REPORTER: Throughout its history the Staten Island Ferry has been called the best bargain in New York. It used to cost a nickel to ride, but now it’s an even better bargain… it’s free. The sight of the huge majestic boats gracefully bobbing on the harbor is a symbol of a quiet borough that some native New Yorkers never venture to.

Back in 1947 on a WNYC radio program called “So Take The Tunnel” hosts Joe Phister and Alice Lloyd tried to convince listeners to take a ride to Staten Island.

ANNOUNCER: WELCOME ABOARD THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY

REPORTER: Today, a free ride on the Staten Island Ferry still gives passengers one of the better views of the Manhattan skyline and tourists do take advantage of it. On a recent trip during the mid-day more people on the boat were clutching maps and had cameras dangling from their necks, but come rush hour it’s different. Tamara Coombs is the chair of the Ferry Riders Committee and calls the boats--- Staten Island’s floating public space.

COOMBS: And there are people who get together on the ferry on their way in to work every morning. They get together for years. They celebrate birthdays. They plan weddings on the ferry. There are many people who meet on the ferry. Some members of the ferry riders committee…on the first night we met, we were talking about what we liked about the ferry. One couple said well, we met on the ferry and they were then married.

REPORTER: The boats have changed colors over the years. They used to be white, then a brownish red and today…they are a vibrant orange making them easily seen in the fog and bad weather. There have been different sized boats over the years. Patricia Salmon the curator of history at the Staten Island Museum says the ferry’s history will be preserved starting with a 1905 wheel from the ferry’s pilot house.

SALMON: It’s huge wooden wheel. It’s very exciting to look at. It’s a great artifact to interpret the ferry’s history. We even have a shoeshine box from one of the men who used to be a shoeshine man on the staten island ferry. They are the men who used to say “Shine, Shine” or else they’d whistle to get people’s attention.

REPORTER: Griselda Healy has worked for years on the ferries doing sketches She says her favorite boats were built in the 1960s…called the Kennedy Class boats.

HEALY: They have this extra-ordinary blue that’s going and the light coming in the windows and the wooden seats and the balconies outside. It just set up this incredible stage set to play with.

REPORTER: The Staten Island Ferry has always been the favorite of artists. Seymour Tro-shane worked as an electrician on the boats starting in 1956. He used to paint pictures of the boats on his lunch hour.

TRO-SHANE: We worked in Pier 7 which is a repair depot. I actually… the original colors of everything that I painted were the original paint that were used on the ferry boat itself. Every bit of it. Even the frame was built in the carpenter shop with the wood that they used to replace repair work on the ferry boats.

Tro-shane’s work now hangs in the Staten Island Museum as does Griselda Healy’s. Her paintings depict passengers who are in a state of capture. They can’t go anywhere until the boat arrives either on Staten Island or in Manhattan.

HEALY: Between the acts of their life. They’re between their home life and their work that they’re going to so it’s the moment of also, yeah there’s a moment of peace and being unattached to whatever they are going to.

REPORTER: The Passengers usually depart from the St. George Terminal on the Staten Island Side and arrive at the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan and do the reverse on the way home. Today the new terminals look like fancy airport concourses. Tamara Coombs says the old terminals were nothing to be desired.

COOMBS: Here you are on the greatest harbor in the world and they couldn’t see it from the terminal. You couldn’t even see the boats come in. There were very small windows in the slip doors that were a little too high for most people to see out of so people would literally jump to see if the boat was coming into the slip.

REPORTER: But at the time they were welcomed. From the municipal archives…in 1949…then Mayor William O’Dwyer laid the cornerstone for the St. George Terminal which was a big deal for Staten Islanders who never really felt like they were a part of New York City.

And today, Tamara Coombs says the new ferry terminals make you feel like you are in New York City.

COOMBS: We have terminals that provide views out, in the case of Manhattan, views of the city in one direction and one of the harbor. We also have views of the boats coming into the slips which is very exciting.

REPORTER: 100 years of municipal ferry service will be celebrated all week. City officials will hold a ceremony this morning followed by Ferry Fest 100 which marks the past, present and future of the Manhattan-Staten Island connection. For WNYC, I’m Richard Hake.

ANNOUNCER: And thank you for riding.

Music from CD2 “He’s a Latin from Staten Island” Charlie Bernet and Orchestra, January 1941, Victor Bluebird.