Commissioned by the American Merchant Mariners' Memorial, Inc., this memorial was conceived in 1976. In 1988, after an extensive competition, the artist Marisol Escobar (b. 1930), known as Marisol, was chosen to develop her design. Situated off-shore from the north end of Battery Park and just south of Pier A, the monument stands on a rebuilt stone breakwater in the harbor. The bronze figural group and boat are based on an actual historical event; during World War II, a Nazi U-boat attacked a merchant marine vessel, and while the marines clung to their sinking vessel, the Germans photographed their victims. Marisol developed a series of studio sketches from this photograph, then fashioned a clay maquette as her winning design proposal for the monument. The work was dedicated on October 8, 1991.
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Castle Clinton, along with more than a dozen other forts was built in anticipation of the War of 1812 to defend New York Harbor. The Southwest Battery was constructed on the rocks off the tip of Manhattan Island between 1808 and 1811. Although fully armed, the fort never had occasion to fire upon an enemy. In 1817, the fort was renamed Castle Clinton in honor of DeWitt Clinton, Mayor and later Governor of New York.
The army vacated the fort in 1821 and the structure was deeded to New York City. In the summer of 1824, a new restaurant and entertainment center opened at the site, then called Castle Garden. A roof was added in the 1840s and Castle Garden served as an opera house and theater until 1854. Many new inventions were demonstrated there to amazed audiences including the telegraph, Colts revolving rifles, steam powdered fire engines and underwater electronic explosives. The "Swedish Nightengale" Jenny Lind made her American debut here in 1850, brought to America by no other then P.T. Barnum.
By 1855, successive landfills had enlarged the Park to encompass Castle Garden and on August 3 the structure became America's first immigrant receiving center, welcoming 8.5 million people before it was closed in 1890 and succeeded by Ellis Island.
The building was altered once again and reopened as the New York City Aquarium on December 10, 1896. It was one of the city's most popular attractions, and one of America's first public aquariums until it closed in 1941.
Following its near-total demolition in 1941 and a major preservation battle, the original fort walls were declared a National Monument by an Act of Congress in 1946. Restored to its fortification appearance by the National Park Service in 1975, the Castle currently houses a small interpretive display and the ticket office for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry.
Castle Clinton was designated a landmarks by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965.
National Register #66000537
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Manning Castle Clinton's 28 guns
Order of September 18, 1814 -- "The force employed will be 2 gunners and 8 matrosses (artillerists) to each gun. To every section of chamber of 2 guns a non commissioned officer."
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Sculptor Luis Sanguino's "The Immigrants" celebrates the diversity of New York City and the struggle of immigrants in this heroic-sized bronze figural group. The sculpture depicts figures of various ethnic groups and eras, including an Eastern European Jew, a freed African slave, a priest, and a worker. STanding together, the members are connected through their pose. The rough surface of the bronze not only accentuates the extreme emotion, but generalizes the features allowing them to represent no individual in particular.
The piece was donated by Samuel Rudin (1896–1975), who commissioned the sculpture in the early 1970s, intending it to be installed near Castle Clinton as a memorial to his parents, who, as it is noted on the plinth, emigrated to the United States in the late-19th century. Although sculpted in 1973, it was not placed in its initial home in front of the Castle until 1983. It has since been moved to the northeast of the Castle.
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Charging Bull, sometimes called the Wall Street Bull or the Bowling Green Bull, is a 16-foot long, 3,200 kg (7,000 pound) bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica, depicting a (what else) bull, leaning back on its haunches with lowered head as if prepared to charge. The bull is symbolic of a prolonged period of prosperity in financial markets, in contrast to the bear, symbolic of a downswing. The etymology of the terms is somewhat ambigious. The most common theory points to "jobbers", London bearskin brokers who would sell bearskins before the bear had actually been caught in anticipation of falling prices. A far more obvious origin points to the method by which the animals attack—bulls charging at a high speed with its horns up from the bottom; bears moving slowly and pouncing from above. Other theories relate to two old merchant families—the Barings and Bulstrodes, hibernation habits, and posture.
Di Modica created the sculpture following the 1987 stock market at a personal cost of $300,000. Not commissioned by the city as a work of public art, he and a group of friends loaded it on a flatbed truck on the night of December 15, 1989 and unloaded it next to the NYSE's 60-foot Christmas tree. In a flyer distributed that day, Di Modica proclaimed it to be a symbol of "strength, power and hope of the American people for the future." The police seized the illegal sculpture, placing it into an impound lot. In response to great public outcry, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation re-installed it several blocks away at its current location at the north end of Bowling Green. One of the most photographed pieces of art in the city (go ahead, try to get a standalone shot without a throng of posing tourists), it has come to be an unofficial symbol of the Financial District itself.
In 1993, hoping to recoup some of the cost, Di Modica announced that the bull sculpture was for sale but the City refused to purchase it. The only interested party was a Las Vegas hotel, but a campaign led by the former Parks Dept. Commissioner, Henry Stern, prevented its relocation. Di Modica continues to own the copyright to the statue and has sued Wal-Mart, North Fork Bancorporation Inc. and eight other companies for selling replicas of the bull and using it in advertising campaigns.
Bowling Green is New York City’s oldest park. According to tradition, this spot served as the council ground for Native American tribes and was the site of the legendary sale of Manhattan to Peter Minuit in 1626. Bowling Green was first designated as a park in 1733 and its famed iron fence was installed in 1771.
By the late 18th century, Bowling Green marked the center of New York’s most fashionable residential area, surrounded by rows of Federal-style townhouses. By mid-century, shipping offices inhabited the old townhouses, and the park was returned to more public use.
A 1976-77 capital renovation restored Bowling Green to its 18th-century appearance. Publisher and philanthropist George Delacorte donated the park’s central fountain, which was designed by M. Paul Friedberg and Partners.
Bowling Green Fence and Park National Historic Register #80002673 (1980)
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