Tottenville

Here is an urban bike adventure you can enjoy in NYC involving three ferries and a "railroad". We did it yesterday and enjoyed a full day's worth of wonderful sightseeing and exercise, leaving at noon and returning close to midnight. Our destination was Tottenville, a small "town" with a quaint nineteenth century sounding name at the southern tip of Staten Island. We chose our route to maximize ferry rides and sightseeing in a part of the City unfamiliar to us.

The first leg of our journey, after travel by bike to Brooklyn Bridge Park, consisted of three free ferry rides: from Brooklyn to Governor's Island; a second ferry from there to Battery Park in Manhattan; and finally the Staten Island Ferry to St. George on Staten Island. We could have biked directly across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Staten Island Ferry, but chose the maritime route as more interesting.

The second leg was a 40 minute ride on the Staten Island Railroad across Staten Island to the last stop-- Tottenville. Despite being lifelong New Yorkers, my wife and I had never before visited Staten Island, except by car on a highway across Staten Island to or from New Jersey. This so-called railroad actually consists of MTA subway cars that travel exclusively on outdoor tracks. Both the ride and the passing neighborhoods were more reminiscent of Metro-North Railroad in Westchester than anything a subway rider would experience elsewhere in the City. Staten Island feels totally different from the other four boroughs: quieter, more suburban, and car-oriented.

On arrival in Tottenville, we found a very sleepy place, with few stores and little activity. One highlight, however, was the Conference Center, which we biked to in a few minutes. A pretty stone house there overlooking the water was the scene of an important pre-Revolutionary War conference attended by a British Admiral and three American negotiators, including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The purpose of the meeting was a final attempt to avoid war by a negotiated settlement. The effort failed and full-scale warfare quickly ensued, when the Americans refused to give in. The event is reenacted every year. We unknowingly missed the program by a few hours. Typical of the laid-back atmosphere on Staten Island, one of the women running the program gave us a supply of corn chowder, corn bread, and tomatoes grown on the grounds to take home. We plan to return next September for the full show.

Retracing our steps, we had dinner in an Indian restaurant in Manhattan before pedaling home across the Brooklyn Bridge and along mostly deserted and quiet Brooklyn streets.