In 1805, an 11 year-old boy from Staten Island named Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school to work full-time on his father's ferry. At 16, he started his own ferry business and in 1838 he took sole control of the main ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan. By the end of the Civil War, he was known as the Commodore, the wealthiest American who had ever lived, controlling 10% of the entire nation's wealth. The Staten Island Ferry was then sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1884, and the City of New York assumed control of the ferry in 1905.
In the early 20th century, the city and private companies also operated ferry routes from Staten Island to Brooklyn. Owing to the growth of vehicular travel, all of the routes from Staten Island to Brooklyn were decommissioned by the mid-1960s; but the route to Manhattan was maintained due to its popularity with passengers. By 1967, it was the only commuter ferry within the entire city. A fast ferry route from Staten Island to Midtown Manhattan ran briefly from 1997 to 1998, with proposals to revive the route resurfacing in the 2010s.
With 23.9 million riders in fiscal year 2016, the Staten Island Ferry is the single busiest ferry route in the United States as of 2016, as well as the world's busiest passenger-only ferry system. The ferry is also popular among tourists and visitors, due to the views of the New York Harbor a trip affords; and it has been featured in several films. There are eight ferry boats currently in service, from four classes: Kennedy, Barberi, Austen, and Molinari.
There were 4 MV (Motor Vessel) of Kennedy class, built by the Levingston Shipbuilding Company in Orange, Texas, between 1963 and 1965, but only John F. Kennedy remained in service, being planned to be retired in 2020. It has a crew of 15, could carry 3,055 passengers and 40 vehicles, is 91 m long and 21.29 m wide, and a service speed of 16 knots (30 km/h). Captains consider her to be the most reliable vessel in the fleet, and riders prefer her abundant open-air deck space.
About the stamps
The first two stamps are part of the series Preservation of Wildlife Habitats, about which I wrote here. The last two stamps are part of the series Christmas Carols, about which I wrote here.
References
Staten Island Ferry - Wikipedia
MV John F. Kennedy - Wikipedia
Sender: Denise
Sent from Western Nassau (New York / United States), on 08.12.2017
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