Aerial view of Battery Park and Financial District  At park's left is Pier A, at park's right is South Ferry Terminal. On the far right is the East River.

Aerial view of the Battery 

View of the Battery and the downtown skyline from East River 

Two acres of Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue, shaded by stately trees, carpet the sweeping new Battery Green 

The Battery Monument located in the park 

Bosque Gardens and waterfront promenade 

Statue of Liberty as seen from the Battery 

Fountains at the kids' play area 

Exploring Lower Manhattan : The Historic Battery & Castle Clinton 

1823 - View of the Battery and Harbour of New York, and the Ambuscade Frigate, 1793  An early view of the Battery painted by John Drayton and engraved by Samuel Hill, it shows recent tree plantings and other improvements. The flagstaff base, characterized as a "gigantic churn" by Washington Irving, was built in 1790. Print depicts June 10-20, 1793 visit of French frigate Embuscade (1789) to Battery Park and Evacuation Day commemorative flagpole.

1940 - Aquarium and Fire Boat, circa. 1923 

1940 - Battery Park, elevated railroads at South and Staten Island Ferries, and Barge Office, 1893  In this image extracted from Page 725 of 'King’s Handbook of New York City', by Moses King, the newly-constructed elevated railroads are visible, with the Battery Park surrounding them.

1940 - New York Aquarium and Battery Park, 1910  This is a view of the old New York Aquarium which opened on December 10, 1896, at Castle Garden in Battery Park. The Aquarium was closed in 1940.

2016 - The World Trade Center seen from the Battery 

2016 - Pedestrian pathways 

2016 - The Battery Oval 

2016 - Paved paths for bikes in the park 

2016 - Bikeways in the park 

2016 - View-framing plantings enhance the main entrances 

2016 - Fountains in the park 

2016 - Artistic rendition of SeaGlass Carousel 

2016 - Snack bar in the park 

2016 - Park benches 

2016 - Site plan of the Battery 

1811 - Castle Clinton National Monument  Originally erected in 1808-1811 as the Southwest Battery for the War of 1812, Castle Clinton was part of the NY Harbor Coastal Fortification system. It was originally located 300 feet offshore and connected to Manhattan via a bridge. The castle itself was converted to administrative headquarters for the Army. Simultaneously, at the end of the war, there was a public movement to build a park in the Battery area.

2011 - New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion  A gift from the Kingdom of the Netherlands to New York City in honor of the 400th Anniversary in 2009 of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York Harbor. The pavilion and plein (Dutch for "plaza") is located in Peter Minuit Plaza on State Street at the intersection of Whitehall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. An area to showcase art, design, and horticulture, it was conceived as an "outdoor living room" where both scheduled and spontaneous activities can take place alongside public markets and a state of the art, food and information pavilion.

2005 - Battery Bosque, Carousel, Kiosk, and Benches  This shady park at the tip of the city was renovated in 2005 with lovely seating, a fountain, and ornamental gardens. A good place to enjoy a cool sea breeze. Once a two-acre area of asphalt, the Bosque now fulfills historic Battery Park's potential as a destination. Full of natural abundance, with spaces to sit, eat, and play, it is a lushly planted porch to the vast acreage of New York's Inner Harbor. The key to this transformation was the synergy between the concept of a garden on the waterfront and the design of new park elements that could complete this atmosphere. The curvilinear park geometry was designed to support Dutch designer Piet Oudolf's perennial plant vocabulary. This radical idea of a public park as a garden that is able to support thousands of flowering plants was bolstered by an emphasis on occupying the new park with hundreds of linear feet of seating and new activities including a water feature and dining. To work with the unique curves of The Bosque, WXY's River Bench system was designed to be comfortable and use less material than conventional systems. The planning of the Park took into account the punishing load of an annual count of four million tourists boarding boats to the Statue of Liberty as well as the influx of new residents and downtown workers. Supporting evening and weekend activity is the integration of lighting into the design of the park's features. Under the trees are bollard lights by Tilllett Lighting that have lenses that allow rainwater to collect and be part of the lighting effect. Food kiosks are designed to be lantern-like at night, using cold cathode fixtures. Although an ellipse shape seems only possible with custom design, this system was created to be modular so that it can be replicated easily and all pieces can be easily replaced.

2015 - SeaGlass Carousel  SeaGlass Carousel demonstrates an innovative collaboration of art and design to create a distinctly contemporary, ecologically themed environment for The Battery in Lower Manhattan. Inspired by the ocean's beauty and The Battery’s history as the first home of the New York Aquarium, SeaGlass is an aquatic carousel, featuring huge fish rather than the usual horses and chariots. The project transforms the traditional ride structure into an instrument of the future, employing underground mechanisms to eliminate the need for a center post - allowing clear views across the pavilion and into the park's lush gardens and landscape. In addition, unlike traditional carousels, SeaGlass riders sit inside the figures. This design makes the rider feel a part of the fish--even “becoming” the fish. The scale of the figures, from 6 feet to 13 feet high, adds to the wonder and grandeur of the experience.

1847 - Chinese junk ship 'Keying' arrives in New York  When the Chinese Junk ship 'The Keying' arrived in New York in 1847, over 7000 people a day paid 25 cents each to just to walk on board and see its unusual design, and to examine the beautifully decorated cabins made of India teak wood, to observe the crew, the Chinese decorative details of silk banners and flags as well as the unusual construction of the ship. She remained at St Helena for some time before taking course to Sandy Hooks and then arriving in New York City in July 1847. The Keying was the first ship from China to visit New York. She moored off the Battery on the southern tip of Manhattan and was received with great fanfare. No less than seven thousand visitors went on board of her every day. She remained in New York for several months. The Chinese crew of Keying were understandably angry as they had signed on only for an eight-month voyage to Singapore and Batavia (now Jakarta). Twenty-six of them left Keying and returned to Canton on board the Candace, which sailed 6 October 1847.

1850 - Jenny Lind's tour of America  In 1849, Lind was approached by the American showman P. T. Barnum with a proposal to tour throughout the United States for more than a year. Realising that it would yield large sums for charity, particularly the endowment of free schools in her native Sweden, Lind agreed. Her financial demands were stringent, but Barnum met them, and in 1850, they reached an agreement. Together with a supporting baritone, Giovanni Belletti, and her London colleague, Julius Benedict, as pianist, arranger and conductor, Lind sailed to America in September 1850. Barnum's advance publicity made her a celebrity even before she arrived in the US, and she received a wild reception on arriving in New York. Tickets for some of her concerts were in such demand that Barnum sold them by auction. The enthusiasm of the public was so strong that the American press coined the term "Lind mania". After her first two performances in New York in September 1850, Lind's party toured the east coast of America, with continued success, and later took in Cuba, the Southern US and Canada. By early 1851, Lind had become uncomfortable with Barnum's relentless marketing of the tour, and she invoked a contractual right to sever her ties with him; they parted amicably. She continued the tour for nearly a year, under her own management, until May 1852. Benedict left the party in 1851 to return to England, and Lind invited Otto Goldschmidt to replace him as pianist and conductor. Lind and Goldschmidt were married on 5 February 1852, near the end of the tour, in Boston. She took the name "Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt", both privately and professionally. Details of the later concerts under her own management are scarce, but it is known that under Barnum's management Lind gave 93 concerts in America for which she earned about $350,000, and he netted at least $500,000[18] ($10.9 million and $15.6 million, as of 2021, respectively). She donated her profits to various charities, including free schools in Sweden and some US charities. The tour is a plot point in the 1980 musical Barnum and the 2017 film The Greatest Showman, both of which include a fictionalized relationship between Lind and Barnum with "romantic undertones".

1609 - Henry Hudson arrives in New York  Henry Hudson arrives on the Halve Maen on his 3rd trip in search of the Northwest Passage. In 1607 and 1608 Henry Hudson made two expeditions funded by England in search of the Northwest Passage, but was forced to return both times because he encountered ice north of the Arctic Circle. On the third trip, aboard the "Halve Maen", this time funded by the Dutch East India Company, in 1609, he again encountered ice, but instead of returning home, as his orders told him to do, he instead decided to sail inland on a great river, originally found by Giovanni da Verrazzano, in search of a rumored river across North America. After 150 miles of travel inland, he stopped near present day Albany and turned around.

1524 - Giovanni da Verrazano arrives in New York  Giovanni da Verrazano is renowned as the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524, including New York Bay and Narragansett Bay. In New York Bay, he encountered the Lenape and observed what he deemed to be a large lake, really the entrance to the Hudson River. He then sailed along Long Island and entered Narragansett Bay, where he received a delegation of Wampanoag and Narragansett people. On sighting the mouth of the harbor, he later described “a very agreeable site located between two hills between which flowed to the sea a very great river.” Verrazzano wrote a report based on his travels to the New World. This document, called the Cellere Codes (a copy of which is located in the Morgan Library in New York City) later served to instruct explorers such as Henry Hudson.

1626 - Peter Minuit purchases Manhattan Island  From Tournai, in present-day Belgium. He was the 3rd Director of the Dutch North American colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and 3rd Governor of New Netherland. He founded the Swedish colony of New Sweden on the Delaware Peninsula in 1638. Minuit is generally credited with orchestrating the purchase of Manhattan Island for the Dutch from the Lenape Native Americans. Manhattan later became the site of the Dutch city of New Amsterdam, and the borough of Manhattan of modern-day New York City. A common account states that Minuit purchased Manhattan for $24 worth of trinkets. A letter written by Dutch merchant Peter Schaghen to directors of the Dutch East India Company stated that Manhattan was purchased for "60 guilders worth of trade," an amount worth approximately $1,143 in 2020 dollars.

1624 - 1st European families to settle in New York  The Walloons were natives of the County of Hainaut in Belgium who had fled to nearby Holland to escape religious persecution. Made to feel unwelcome in Holland, the Walloons, led by Jesse de Forest, first appealed to the British in 1621 for permission to settle in the British-controlled Virginia colony. When their request to the British was denied, they petitioned the Dutch West India Company to allow them to settle in the Dutch-controlled colony of New Amsterdam. Their application was granted and a group of 32 Belgian Huguenot families sailed on the ship Nieu Nederland (“New Netherland”) left Holland in March 1624, landing in New York on May 20, 1624.

2005 - Peter Minuit plaza  The renovated Whitehall Terminal included a new 2-acre (8,100 m2) plaza, named after Peter Minuit. The terminal includes access to bus services at Peter Minuit Plaza.

1884 - Pier A  Pier A is the sole historic pier left in Manhattan. A three-story pier head was added in 1900, an in 1919 a clock was installed in the tower in memorial of the soldiers who died in World War I. The clock was the first WWI memorial in the United States. The pier underwent a major renovation in 2010 and expects to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

2010 - Rising Currents: Projects for the New York Waterfront  As part of its 2010 exhibit “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront,” the Museum of Modern Art commissioned ARO to re-imagine Lower Manhattan in response to rising sea levels. This proposal rethinks the relationship of the built city to the water’s edge, creating a network of tidal salt marshes and parks to protect the urban infrastructure from storm surge. Two years later, after Super-Storm Sandy hit New York, the prescience of the project and the importance of its ideas came to the fore. The Museum of Modern Art invited Architecture Research Office and dlandstudio to participate in this 2010 exhibition. Based on ARO's previous research into climate change's impact on the city (with structural engineer Guy Nordenson's Latrobe Prize fellowship team), the exhibition presents the work of five teams of design teams who have each reinvented sites throughout New York City in response to rising sea levels. The site assigned to ARO and dlandstudio is Lower Manhattan. ARO's proposal consists of two basic components that form an interconnected system: porous green streets and a graduated edge. Their new conception of what a “street” is will not only provide productive park space within the city, it creates a network of absorptive green surfaces. On the edge of the island, three interrelated high-performance systems are constructed to block higher sea levels and mitigate storm surge force and flooding: a productive park network, freshwater wetlands, and tidal salt marshes. The above- and below-ground performance of the city can be supported by a newly integrated and mutually beneficial infrastructure.

1991 - American Merchant Mariners' Memorial  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 mariners 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.

1926 - Netherland Memorial Flagpole  This is a monumental granite flagstaff pedestal honoring the first Dutch settlers. West Side: "On the 22nd of April 1625 Amsterdam Chamber of the West Indies Company decreed the establishment and the creation of the adjoining farms the purchase of the Island of Manhattan was accomplished in 1626. Thus was laid the foundation of the City of New York." Front: "In testimony of ancient and unbroken friendship this flagpole is presented to the city of New York by the Dutch People 1926."

1947 - Coast Guard Memorial  The monument depicts an inter-racial three-figure group in which two soldiers in fatigues and bearing rifles support a wounded soldier, and is intended to honor those from the Coast Guard who served their country during World War II (1941-1945). Thomas, a non-professional sculptor, was a painter and combat veteran, who studied at the American Academy in Rome and with Paul Manship at the National Academy of Design in New York City. He based his composition on a rescue he had witnessed at the Luzon beachhead. Relying on a sketch which Thomas submitted, the United States Coast Guard, which maintains an administrative facility just south of Battery Park, and which until the late 1990s had a base on Governors Island in New York Harbor, commissioned the sculpture.

2000 - River That Flows Two Ways  Thirty-seven panels of this permanent public artwork are set into the Seawall railing. The project details the ecological and human history of the Battery and the Hudson from the glacial age to the present. The Conservancy raised over $350,000 in private funds and worked with artist Wopo Holup to design, fabricate, and install the sculptural cast iron and bronze panels. Panels--cast iron; two panels--glass; two running bands--bronze These lyrical images depict marine, natural, and human history. The panels illustrate the explorations and encounters of New York's diverse populations, showing maritime vessels, and moments in the exciting history of the Battery. It arouses curiosity, enchants the eye, and celebrates New York City's heritage. It is a piece that responds to a singular opportunity to make visible how the flow of the Hudson River, the flow of history, and the flow of people intersect at The Battery, making possible New York's ascent as one of the world's great cities.

1818 - Fort George Memorial Tablet  The Fort George Memorial was dedicated in 1817 to honor one of the bastions that protected the young city's harbors and is the oldest memorial in the park. The small concrete slab has been grown over and rediscovered twice and the fun is in trying to find it.

1924 - Walloon Settlers Monument  This nearly ten-foot-tall granite stele at the northwest corner of Battery Park by Castle Clinton was designed by noted architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924). The monument and its gilded inscription commemorates the Walloon Settlers, a group of 32 Belgian Huguenot families who joined the Dutch in 1624 on the ship Nieu Nederland (“New Netherland”) to colonize New Amsterdam, in what is now called the island of Manhattan. Architect Bacon also designed Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial (1911-22) and Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Pool (1922).

1973 - The Immigrants  Sculptor Luis Sanguino 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. The figures’ expressive poses emphasize the struggle and toil inherent in the experience of the immigrant or dislocated person.

1991 - Korean War Memorial  This monument in Battery Park, north of Castle Clinton, honors military personnel who served in the Korean Conflict (1950–1953). The memorial, dedicated in 1991, was designed by Welsh-born artist Mac Adams (b. 1943) and is notable as one of the first Korean War memorials erected in the United States. In 1987 the Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee was formed to raise money to build a monument to commemorate the soldiers of the “forgotten war.” Mac Adams’ winning design, selected from a group of over 100 entries, features a 15-foot-high black granite stele with the shape of a Korean War soldier cut out of the center. Also known as “The Universal Soldier,” the figure forms a silhouette that allows viewers to see through the monument to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Adams also designed the piece to function as a sundial. Every July 27 at 10 a.m., the anniversary of the exact moment in New York when hostilities ceased in Korea, the sun shines through the soldier’s head and illuminates the commemorative plaque installed in the ground at the foot of the statue. One of the three tiers in the base of the monument is decorated with a mosaic of flags of the countries that participated in the U.N.-sponsored mission. The plaza’s paving blocks are inscribed with the number of dead, wounded, and missing in action from each of the 22 countries that participated in the war.

1903 - John Ericsson  This 1903 statue by Jonathan Scott Hartley (1845–1912) depicts the esteemed Swedish-American engineer and inventor John Ericsson (1803–1889), who helped to revolutionize military-maritime technology with his ironclad warship, the Monitor. The Monitor was Ericsson’s response to the Confederacy’s intent in early 1861 to ironclad its warship, the Merrimac. Ericsson built the Monitor at the Continental Iron Works foundry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; its engine and machinery were fabricated in Greenwich Village at the Delamater Iron Works. He died on March 8, 1889, in New York City. Less than four years after his death, the distinguished sculptor Johnathan Scott Hartley was commissioned by the state to create a larger-than-life bronze portrait of Ericsson, which was dedicated April 26, 1893 in Battery Park. The pedestal was designed by architect Frank Wallis. Ten years later the sculptor, dissatisfied with his first version, crafted a modified statue, cast at the local Roman Bronze Works, and dedicated on August 1, 1903, a day after the centennial of Ericsson’s birth. In 1939 a monument to Ericsson and the Monitor was unveiled in McGolrick Park, Brooklyn. The sculpture in Battery Park depicts the bearded Ericsson holding a boat model in his hand. The pedestal features inset bronze bas-reliefs, which illustrate significant naval battles involving the Monitor and Princeton, as well as an array of Ericsson’s mechanical inventions. Over time the monument suffered extensive damage, the result of weathering, vandalism, and even a fire. In 1996 the sculpture was conserved by Parks’ monuments crew, and as part of overall improvements to Battery Park, the sculpture is slated to be moved from its present location to a more prominent site near a perimeter entrance.

1909 - Giovanni da Verrazzano Statue  This sculpture depicts the Italian explorer and navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano (c. 1485-1528). He is known for being the first European to have entered New York Bay. Verrazzano wrote a journal based on his travels across the ocean. This document later served to help other explorers such as Henry Hudson.

1968 - The Sphere  This bronze sphere was originally commissioned by the Port Authority for the plaza of the World Trade Center. The artwork was badly damaged by the debris from September 11th and became an iconic symbol of survival. There was considerable discussion, and even a film, Koenig's Kugel by the German Director Percy Adlon was made about including it as part of the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero, but the sculpture was then moved in 2002 near Hopes Garden in Battery Park.

1914 - Battery Park Cannon  In 1892, the ancient cannon was dug up at Exchange Alley and Broadway during construction. Exchange Alley had been used as the path to British fortifications informally known as “the Oyster Pasty” (1695-1783) likely because of its shape or because of the popularity of Oysters as a delicacy and thus, must have acquired the name Oyster Pasty Lane or Oyster Pasty Alley. In the 1800s, both Garden Street and Oyster Pasty Alley became Exchange Place and Alley. But before it was moved, the cannon was mounted along what is now the sidewalk opposite the Custom House, between the years 1695 and 1783. The cannon was relocated to Battery Park (close to the Bowling Green control station) in 1914, when it was donated to the City of New York by William Henry Mairs and the Children of the City History Club. NOTE: Oysters, in beds in the surrounding rivers and bays of Manhattan and Long Islands, were a prime means of sustenance for the Lenape Indians and then New York City residents for decades after independence. While the British controlled NYC, this was also the case and a common British delicacy is the “pasty,” an empañada-like treat that featured a pastry crust with various meat, cheese or vegetable filling. Thus, “pasties” were consumed by the tonnage in the Manhattan of that era. However, the alley wasn’t directly named for the food.