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Saint George

St. George became the island's primary ferry terminal and railyard in 1885 when the Staten Island Rapid Transit project extended the SIRR from it's old terminal in Clifton up to St. George and along the North Shore to a new drawbridge over Arthur Kill leading to the mainland. The community was renamed St. George as a condition of the sale of the ferry and rail terminal property by George Law.

The former NSRR platforms at the St. George ferry terminal are still intact and track continues past a special-event station at the ballpark and about 1,000 feet north to a terminating bumper.

To the North of St. George is Kill van Kull and fuel storage tanks in Bayonne.

The Staten Island ferry is New York City's best tourist deal - a free one-hour cruise across New York Harbor. While its primary function is providing a connection to Manhattan for Staten Island commuters, it also represents an undercapitalized asset that could serve the millions of tourists that ride in from Manhattan and get right back on the return boat without experiencing what Staten Island has to offer them - which right now isn't much.

The long-abandoned railyard was converted into commuter parking lot and stadium for a minor-league affiliate of the New York Yankees baseball team in the late 1990s. Baseball was supposedly played professionally in St. George from 1886 to 1888, although it's hard to imagine how the comparatively small area was shared by a railyard and ballpark. The 7,171-seat Richmond County Bank ballpark opened on June 24, 2001 and a waterfront boardwalk park was also incorporated into the design. A 9/11 memorial was added in 2004 (SIYanks.com 2009). A station to provide seasonal service to the ballpark was added on a short section of the North Shore line.

The intact ROW (overgrown and with no track) continues directly alongside Richmond Terrace to the site of the (now-defunct) New Brighton stop at the foot of Jersey Street. Reactivation of the ROW would entail moving Bank Street (which runs parallel to the ROW and is used to access the parking lot from Jersey Street) around 20 feet away from the ROW.

Next: New Brighton