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82-544: Staten Island ( / ˈ s t æ t ən / STAT -ən ) is the southernmost borough of New York City , coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York . The borough is separated from the adjacent state of New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay . With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census , Staten Island

164-652: A "temporary landfill" in 1947, the Fresh Kills Landfill was a repository of trash for the city of New York. The landfill, once the world's largest man-made structure, was closed in 2001, but it was briefly reopened for the debris from Ground Zero following the September 11 attacks in 2001. It is being converted into a park almost three times the size of Central Park and the largest park to be developed in New York City in over 100 years. Plans for

246-461: A company of infantry. The following year, he settled on Staten Island, where he was granted a patent for 932 acres (3.8 km) of land. According to one version of an oft-repeated but apocryphal tale, Captain Billopp's seamanship secured Staten Island to New York, rather than to New Jersey: the island would belong to New York if the captain could circumnavigate it in one day, which he did. This story

328-550: A compromise that established the maritime boundary in the middle of the Hudson River and gave Staten Island to New York. Ellis Island and Bedloe's Island , both uninhabited at the time, also became controlled by New Jersey. From 1800 to 1858, Staten Island was the location of the largest quarantine facility in the United States. Angry residents burned down the hospital compound in 1858 in a series of attacks known as

410-509: A county in themselves, or are completely separate and independent of any county. Each borough is represented by a borough president . Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island each have a Borough Hall with limited administrative functions. The Manhattan Borough President's office is situated in the Manhattan Municipal Building . The Bronx Borough President's office used to be in its own Bronx Borough Hall but has been in

492-487: A county. When the western part of Queens County was consolidated with New York City in 1898, that area became the Borough of Queens. In 1899, the remaining eastern section of Queens County was split off to form Nassau County on Long Island , thereafter making the borough and county of Queens coextensive with each other. The term borough was adopted in 1898 to describe a form of governmental administration for each of

574-669: Is also used by politicians to counter a frequent focus on Manhattan and thereby to place all five boroughs on equal footing. In the same vein, the term outer boroughs refers to all of the boroughs excluding Manhattan, even though the geographic center of the city is along the Brooklyn–Queens border. All five boroughs were created in 1898 during consolidation, when the city's modern boundaries were established. The Bronx originally included parts of New York County outside of Manhattan that had previously been ceded by neighboring Westchester County in two stages; in 1874 ( southern Yonkers , and

656-517: Is most likely untrue, due to conflicting information on the time Christopher Billopp took to complete the race and whether he received a personal prize or not. Mayor Michael Bloomberg perpetuated the myth by referring to it at a news conference in Brooklyn on February 20, 2007. Reliable historical documentation of the event is extremely sparse, however, and most historians conclude that it is entirely apocryphal. In 2007, The New York Times addressed

738-761: Is now considered to be the oldest mound complex in the Americas. It precedes that built at Poverty Point by nearly 2,000 years (both are in northern Louisiana). More than 100 sites have been identified as associated with the regional Poverty Point culture of the Late Archaic period, and it was part of a regional trading network across the Southeast. Across the Southeastern Woodlands , starting around 4000 BC, people exploited wetland resources, creating large shell middens . Middens developed where

820-576: Is spelled as Eghquaons in the deed to Lubbertus van Dincklage for the purchase of Staten Island, 1657. The area was part of the Lenape homeland known as Lenapehoking . The Lenape were later called the "Delaware" by the English colonists because they inhabited both shores of what the English named the Delaware River . The island was laced with Native American foot trails, one of which followed

902-501: Is the least populated New York City borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km); it is also the least densely populated and most suburban borough in the city. A home to the Lenape Native American's, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. It was one of the 12 original counties of New York state. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898 . It

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984-570: Is the only borough without a New York City Department of Correction major detention center. The construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge , along with the other three major Staten Island bridges, created a new way for commuters and tourists to travel from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Manhattan, and areas farther east on Long Island . The network of highways running between the bridges has effectively carved up many of Staten Island's old neighborhoods. The bridge opened many areas of

1066-636: Is the third-smallest county in New York by land area and fourth-smallest by total area. Although Staten Island is a borough of New York City, the island is geographically part of New Jersey. Staten Island is separated from Long Island by the Narrows and from mainland New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull. Staten Island is positioned at the center of New York Bight , a sharp bend in

1148-622: Is used in Connecticut , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania , where a borough is an independent level of government, as well as with borough forms used in other states and in Greater London . New York City is often referred to collectively as the five boroughs , which can unambiguously refer to the city proper as a whole, avoiding confusion with any particular borough or with the Greater New York metropolitan area . The term

1230-906: The Bronx County Courthouse for decades. Since the abolition of the Board of Estimate in 1990 (due to a 1989 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court ), the borough presidents have minimal executive powers, and there is no legislative function within a borough. Executive functions in New York City are the responsibility of the Mayor of New York City , while legislative functions reside with the New York City Council . The borough presidents primarily act as spokesmen, advocates, and ceremonial leaders for their boroughs, have budgets from which they can allocate relatively modest sums of money to community organizations and projects, and appoint

1312-705: The George Washington Bridge , has also been called the sixth borough. Yonkers , in Westchester County, is often referred to as the sixth borough as well. Archaic period (North America) The rest of the Americas also have an Archaic Period . This classification system was first proposed by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in the widely accepted 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology . In

1394-877: The Hudson River in Palisades Interstate Park . The sill extends southward beyond the cliffs in Jersey City beneath the Upper New York Harbor and resurfaces on Staten Island. The Palisades sill date from the Early Jurassic period, 192 to 186 million years ago. Staten Island has been at the southern terminus of various periods of glaciation . The most recent, the Wisconsin glaciation , ended approximately 12,000 years ago. The accumulated rock and sediment deposited at

1476-414: The Kill Van Kull was frozen over, Lord Stirling led an unsuccessful Patriot raid from New Jersey on the western shore of Staten Island. It was repulsed in part by troops led by British Commander Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings . In June 1780, Wilhelm von Knyphausen , commander of Britain's Hessian auxiliaries , led many raids and a full assault into New Jersey from Staten Island with

1558-529: The New York City Board of Estimate , which had given equal representation to the five boroughs. Dinkins and the city government opposed a non-binding secession referendum, contending that the vote should not be permitted by the state unless the city issued a home rule message supporting it, which the city would not. Governor Mario Cuomo disagreed, and the vote went forward in 1993. Ultimately, 65% of Staten island residents voted to secede through

1640-532: The New York metropolitan area as well as in other states, U.S. territories , and foreign countries. In 2011, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to the city's waterfront and waterways as a composite sixth borough during presentations of planned rehabilitation projects along the city's shoreline , including Governor's Island in the Upper New York Bay . The Hudson Waterfront , in

1722-671: The Rose and Crown Tavern , near the junction of present New Dorp Lane and Richmond Road. There the representatives of the British government reportedly received their first notification of the Declaration of Independence . In August 1776, the British forces crossed the Narrows to Brooklyn and outflanked the American forces at the Battle of Long Island , resulting in the British control of

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1804-710: The Rossville section of Staten Island, where they were first found near the old Rossville Post Office building. At the time of European contact, the island was inhabited by the Raritan band of the Unami division of the Lenape . In Lenape , one of the Algonquian languages , Staten Island was called Aquehonga Manacknong , meaning "as far as the place of the bad woods", or Eghquhous , meaning "the bad woods". The name

1886-663: The Staten Island Quarantine War . In 1860, parts of Castleton and Southfield were made into a new town, Middletown . The Village of New Brighton in the town of Castleton was incorporated in 1866, and in 1872 the Village of New Brighton annexed all the remainder of the Town of Castleton and became coterminous with the town. An 1887 movement to incorporate Staten Island as a city ended up resulting in nothing. The towns of Staten Island were dissolved in 1898 with

1968-614: The Staten Island Railway , which runs from the ferry terminal at St. George to Tottenville . Staten Island is the only borough not connected to the New York City Subway system. The free Staten Island Ferry connects the borough to Manhattan across New York Harbor . It provides views of the Statue of Liberty , Ellis Island , and Lower Manhattan . As in much of North America, human habitation appeared on

2050-631: The U.S. state of New Jersey , lies opposite Manhattan on the Hudson River , and during the Dutch colonial era , it was under the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam and known as Bergen . Jersey City and Hoboken , in New Jersey's Hudson County , are sometimes referred to as the sixth borough, given their proximity and connections by rapid transit PATH trains to the city. Fort Lee , in Bergen County , opposite Upper Manhattan and connected by

2132-597: The extirpation of large mammals on the island. Evidence of the first permanent Native American settlements and agriculture are thought to date from about 5,000 years ago, although early archaic habitation evidence has been found in multiple locations on the island. Rossville points are distinct arrowheads that define a Native American cultural period from the Archaic period to the Early Woodland period , dating from about 1500 to 100 BC. They are named for

2214-566: The 17th-century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement, developed rapidly beginning in the 1960s and 1970s and is now very suburban. The West Shore is the island's least populated and most industrial part. Motor traffic can reach the borough from Brooklyn by the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and from New Jersey by the Outerbridge Crossing , Goethals Bridge and Bayonne Bridge . Staten Island has Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus lines and an MTA rapid transit line,

2296-607: The 1990s, secure dating of multiple Middle Archaic sites in northern Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida has challenged traditional models of development. In these areas, hunter-gatherer societies in the Lower Mississippi Valley organized to build monumental earthwork mound complexes as early as 3500 BC (confirmed at Watson Brake ), with building continuing over a period of 500 years. Early mound sites such as Frenchman's Bend and Hedgepeth were of this time period; all were constructed by localized societies. Watson Brake

2378-494: The 5,100-acre (21 km) manorial estate of colonial governor Thomas Dongan in the northeastern hills known as the "Lordship or Manor of Cassiltown", along with the North, South, and West divisions. These divisions later evolved into the four towns of Castleton , Northfield , Southfield , and Westfield . In 1698, the population was 727. The government granted land patents in rectangular blocks of 80 acres (320,000 m), with

2460-475: The Declaration of Independence, and the conference ended without an agreement. On August 22, 1777, the Battle of Staten Island occurred between the British forces and several companies of the 2nd Canadian Regiment fighting alongside other American companies. The battle was inconclusive, though both sides surrendered over a hundred troops as prisoners. The Americans finally withdrew. In early 1780, while

2542-603: The Dutch Staaten Eylandt , anglicized as "Staten Island", became part of the new English colony of New York . In 1670, the Native Americans ceded all claims to Staten Island to the English in a deed to Governor Francis Lovelace . In 1671, in order to encourage an expansion of the Dutch settlements, the English resurveyed Oude Dorp (which became known as 'Old Town') and expanded the lots along

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2624-526: The Dutch and the local tribe. In 1661, the first permanent Dutch settlement was established at Oude Dorp (Dutch for "Old Village") by a small group of Dutch, Walloon , and French Huguenot families, just south of the Narrows near South Beach. Many French Huguenots had gone to the Netherlands as refugees from the religious wars in France, suffering persecution for their Protestant faith, and some joined

2706-665: The Late Shield Archaic phase (3,500–4,450 BP ) has sites as far as Manitoba , and archaeologists have investigated suspected Shield Archaic sites as far away as Killarney Provincial Park near Georgian Bay in Ontario . The prominent Canadian archaeologist J. V. Wright argued in 1976 that the Shield Archaic had emerged from the Northern Plano tradition , but this was questioned by Bryan C. Gordon in

2788-549: The Native Americans signed a deed to Lubbertus van Dincklage, attorney of Henrick van der Capelle tho Ryssel, for the purchase of all indigenous lands on Staten Island. However, this deed was annulled when the Dutch purchasers failed to deliver the promised goods for the land a few months later. At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, the Dutch ceded New Netherland to England in the Treaty of Breda , and

2870-545: The aim of defeating George Washington and the Continental Army . Although the raids were successful in the Newark and Elizabeth areas, the advance was halted at Connecticut Farms (Union) and the Battle of Springfield . British forces remained on Staten Island for the remainder of the war. Most Patriots fled after the British occupation, and the sentiment of those who remained was predominantly Loyalist . Even so,

2952-671: The approval of a new city charter making Staten Island an independent city , but implementation was blocked in the State Assembly . In the 1980s, the United States Navy had a base on Staten Island called Naval Station New York . It had two sections: a Strategic Homeport in Stapleton and a larger section near Fort Wadsworth , where the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge enters the island. The base

3034-430: The borough to residential and commercial development from the 1960s onward, especially in the central and southern parts of the borough, which had been largely undeveloped. Staten Island's population doubled from 221,991 in 1960 to 443,728 in 2000. Nevertheless, Staten Island remained less developed than the rest of the city. A New York Times article in 1972 stated that despite the borough having 333,000 residents, parts of

3116-463: The city grew northward, it began annexing areas on the mainland, absorbing territory from Westchester County into New York County in 1874 ( West Bronx ) and 1895 ( East Bronx ). During the 1898 consolidation, this territory was organized as the Borough of the Bronx, though still part of New York County. In 1914, Bronx County was split off from New York County so that each borough was then coterminous with

3198-555: The city. In some document collections the boroughs used to be designated with a one-letter abbreviation: K for Brooklyn, M for Manhattan, Q for Queens, R for Staten Island (Richmond County), and X for the Bronx. The term "sixth borough" is used to describe any of a number of places that have been metaphorically called a part of New York City because of their geographic location, demographics (they include large numbers of former New Yorkers), special affiliation, or cosmopolitan character. They have included adjacent cities and counties in

3280-769: The coast. These shell rings are numerous in South Carolina and Georgia but are also found scattered around the Florida Peninsula and along the Gulf of Mexico coast as far west as the Pearl River . In some places, such as Horr's Island in Southwest Florida , resources were rich enough to support sizable mound-building communities year-round. Four shell or sand mounds on Horr's Island have been dated to between 2900 and 2300 BC. The Shield Archaic

3362-541: The collision zone and now forms the oldest bedrock strata of Staten Island, the serpentinite . This strata of the Lower Paleozoic (approximately 430 million years old) consists predominantly of the serpentine minerals, antigorite , chrysotile , and lizardite ; it also contains asbestos and talc . At the end of the Paleozoic era (248 million years ago) all major continental masses were joined into

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3444-654: The colonies, residents of the island were so uninterested that no representatives were sent to the First Continental Congress , the only county in New York to not send anyone. This had economic repercussions in the months up through 1776, where New Jersey towns such as Elizabethport, Woodbridge , and Dover instituted boycotts on doing business with islanders. On March 17, 1776, the British forces under Sir William Howe evacuated Boston and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia . From Halifax, Howe prepared to attack New York City, which then consisted entirely of

3526-406: The colony of New York was divided into ten counties. As part of this process, Staten Island, as well as several minor neighboring islands, was designated as Richmond County . The name derives from the title of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond , an illegitimate son of King Charles II . In 1687 and 1688, the English divided the island into four administrative divisions based on natural features:

3608-613: The consolidation of the City of Greater New York , as Richmond County became one of the five boroughs of the expanded city. Although consolidated into the City of Greater New York in 1898, the county sheriff of Staten Island maintained control of the jail system, unlike the other boroughs, which had gradually transferred control of the jails to the Department of Correction. The jail system was not transferred until January 1, 1942. Staten Island

3690-675: The continent of Laurentia and the plate containing the continent of Gondwanaland were converging, the Iapetus Ocean that separated the two continents gradually closed, and the resulting collision between the plates formed the Appalachian Mountains . During the early stages of this mountain building known as the Taconic orogeny , a piece of ocean crust from the Iapetus Ocean broke off and became incorporated into

3772-436: The counties are considered to be arms of the state government), rather than officials of the city government, they are not subject to the term limitations that govern other New York City officials such as the mayor, the New York City Public Advocate , members of the city council, or the borough presidents. Some civil court judges also are elected on a borough-wide basis, although they generally are eligible to serve throughout

3854-403: The course of the Hudson River have placed it alternatively through the present course of the Raritan River , south of the island, or through present-day Flushing Bay and Jamaica Bay . According to the U.S. Census Bureau , Richmond County has a total area of 102.5 square miles (265 km), of which 58.5 square miles (152 km) is land and 44.0 square miles (114 km) (43%) is water. It

3936-437: The creation of modern New York City in 1898, when New York County (then including the Bronx), Kings County, Richmond County, and part of Queens County were consolidated within one municipal government under a new city charter . All former municipalities within the newly consolidated city were dissolved. New York City was originally confined to Manhattan Island and the smaller surrounding islands that formed New York County. As

4018-448: The eastern edge of New Jersey was located at the Hudson River 's shoreline during high tide, which would give New York control of all the docks and wharves on the Hudson River. New Jersey argued that the maritime boundary should be down the middle of the Hudson River and then continue out to the Atlantic Ocean, which would give New Jersey control of the docks and wharves as well as Staten Island. Vice President Martin Van Buren negotiated

4100-402: The emigration to New Netherland. At one point nearly a third of the residents of the Island spoke French. The last vestige of Oude Dorp is the name of the present-day neighborhood of Old Town adjacent to Old Town Road. Staten Island was not spared the bloodshed that culminated in Kieft's War . In the summer of 1641 and in 1642, Native American tribes laid waste to Old Town. On July 10, 1657,

4182-410: The family of Canadian historian Peter Fisher , John Dunn, who founded St. Andrews, New Brunswick , and Abraham Jones , fled to Canada, and their estates were subdivided and sold. Staten Island was occupied by the British longer than any single part of the Thirteen Colonies. On July 4, 1827, the end of slavery in New York state was celebrated at Swan Hotel, in the West Brighton neighborhood. Rooms at

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4264-425: The five fundamental constituent parts of the newly consolidated city . Under the 1898 City Charter adopted by the New York State Legislature, a borough is a municipal corporation that is created when a county is merged with populated areas within it. The limited powers of the boroughs are inferior to the authority of the government of New York City , contrasting significantly with the powers of boroughs as that term

4346-431: The five major governmental districts that compose New York City . They are the Bronx , Brooklyn , Manhattan , Queens , and Staten Island . Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New York : The Bronx is Bronx County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens is Queens County, and Staten Island is Richmond County. All five boroughs of New York came into existence with

4428-430: The harbor and the capture of New York City shortly afterwards. Three weeks later, on September 11, 1776, Sir William's brother, Lord Howe , received a delegation of Americans consisting of Benjamin Franklin , Edward Rutledge , and John Adams at the Conference House on the southwestern tip of the island on the former estate of Christopher Billopp. The Americans refused a peace offer from Howe in exchange for withdrawing

4510-422: The hotel were reserved months in advance as local abolitionists, including prominent free blacks, prepared for the festivities. Speeches, pageants, picnics, and fireworks marked the celebration, which lasted for two days. In the early 19th century, New Jersey and New York disputed the location of their maritime boundary. The original charters were of no help because they were worded ambiguously. New York argued that

4592-407: The island fairly rapidly after the Wisconsin glaciation . Archaeologists have recovered tool evidence of Clovis culture activity dating from about 14,000 years ago. This evidence was first discovered in 1917 in the Charleston section of the island. Various Clovis artifacts have been discovered since then, on property owned by Mobil Oil . The island was probably abandoned later, possibly because of

4674-407: The island still maintained a bucolic atmosphere with woods and marshes. Throughout the 1980s, a movement to secede from the city steadily grew in popularity, notably championed by longtime New York state senator and former Republican Party mayoral nominee John J. Marchi . The campaign reached its peak during the mayoral term of David Dinkins (1990–1993), after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated

4756-512: The islanders found the demands of supporting the troops to be heavy. The British army kept headquarters in neighborhoods such as Bulls Head . Many buildings and churches were destroyed for their materials, and the military's demand for resources resulted in an extensive deforestation by the end of the war. The British army again used the island as a staging ground for its final evacuation of New York City on December 5, 1783. After their departure, many Loyalist landowners, such as Christopher Billop ,

4838-422: The issue in a news article, which concluded that this event was heavily embellished over the years and almost certainly originated in local folklore. YouTuber CGP Grey addressed the story of the Staten Island race and its historical discrepancies in a 2019 video, in which he concluded that Gabriel Disosway, a local chronicler in Staten Island, was responsible for originating the legend in the mid-1800s. In 1683,

4920-405: The media, they are technically and legally the district attorneys of New York County and Kings County, respectively. The same goes for Staten Island. There is no such distinction made for the district attorneys of the other two counties, Queens and the Bronx, since these boroughs share the respective counties' names. Because the five district attorneys are, technically speaking, state officials (since

5002-522: The members of the 59 largely advisory community boards in the city's various neighborhoods. The Brooklyn and Queens borough presidents also appoint trustees to the local public library systems in those boroughs. Being coextensive with an individual county, each borough also elects a district attorney , as does every other county of New York State. While the district attorneys of Manhattan and Brooklyn are popularly referred to as "Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr. ", or "Brooklyn D.A. Kenneth P. Thompson " by

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5084-402: The most desirable lands along the coastline and inland waterways. By 1708, the entire island had been divided up in this fashion, creating 166 small farms and two large manorial estates, the Dongan estate and a 1,600 acres (6.5 km) parcel on the southwestern tip of the island belonging to Christopher Billopp. The first county seat was established in New Dorp in what was called Stony Brook at

5166-420: The name of the county unchanged. There are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs of New York City, many with a definable history and character to call their own. Since 1914, each of New York City's five boroughs has been coextensive with a county of New York State – unlike most U.S. cities , which lie within a single county or extend partially into another county, constitute

5248-424: The neighborhoods of St. George , Tompkinsville , Clifton , and Stapleton —is the island's most urban area. It contains the designated St. George Historic District and the St. Paul's Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian houses. The East Shore is home to the 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -mile (4-kilometer) FDR Boardwalk , the world's fourth-longest boardwalk . The South Shore , site of

5330-407: The organization of the system, the Archaic period followed the Lithic stage and is superseded by the Formative stage . Numerous local variations have been identified within the cultural rankings. The period has been subdivided by region and then time. For instance, the Archaic Southwest tradition is subdivided into the San Dieguito–Pinto , Oshara , Cochise and Chihuahua cultures. Since

5412-402: The park include a bird-nesting island, public roads, boardwalks, soccer and baseball fields, bridle paths, and a 5,000-seat stadium. Today, freshwater and tidal wetlands, fields, birch thickets, and a coastal oak maritime forest, as well as areas dominated by non-native plant species, are all within the boundaries of Fresh Kills.   During the Paleozoic Era , the tectonic plate containing

5494-506: The people lived along rivers, but there is limited evidence of Archaic peoples along the coastlines prior to 3000 BC. Archaic sites on the coast may have been inundated by rising sea levels (one site in 15 to 20 feet of water off St. Lucie County, Florida , has been dated to 2800 BC). Starting around 3000 BC, evidence of large-scale exploitation of oysters appears. During the period 3000 BC to 1000 BC, shell rings , large shell middens that more or less surround open centers, were developed along

5576-432: The ship La Dauphine and anchored for one night. The Dutch did not establish a permanent settlement on Staaten Eylandt for many decades. Its name derived from the Staten Generaal , the parliament of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands . From 1639 to 1655, Cornelis Melyn and David de Vries made three separate attempts to establish one there, but each time the settlement was destroyed in conflicts between

5658-424: The shore in the Tottenville section, where oyster shells larger than 12 inches (300 mm) are sometimes found. Burial Ridge , a Lenape burial ground on a bluff overlooking Raritan Bay in Tottenville , is the largest pre-European burial ground in New York City. Bodies have been reported unearthed at Burial Ridge from 1858 onward. After conducting independent research, which included unearthing bodies interred at

5740-401: The shore to the south. These lots were settled primarily by Dutch families and became known as Nieuwe Dorp (meaning 'New Village'), which later became anglicized as New Dorp . Captain Christopher Billopp , after years of distinguished service in the Royal Navy, came to America in 1674 along with the newly appointed royal governor of New York and the Jerseys Sir Edmund Andros, in charge of

5822-425: The shoreline between New Jersey and Long Island. The region is considered vulnerable to sea-level rise. On October 29, 2012, the island experienced severe damage and loss of life along with the destruction of many homes during Hurricane Sandy . In addition to the main island, the borough and county also include several small uninhabited islands: Boroughs of New York City The boroughs of New York City are

5904-540: The site, ethnologist and archaeologist George H. Pepper was contracted in 1895 to conduct paid archaeological research at Burial Ridge by the American Museum of Natural History . The burial ground today is unmarked and lies within Conference House Park . The first recorded European contact on the island was in 1524 by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano who sailed through The Narrows on

5986-492: The south side of the ridge near the course of present-day Richmond Road and Amboy Road . The Lenape did not live in fixed encampments but moved seasonally, using slash and burn agriculture. Shellfish was a staple of their diet, including the Eastern oyster ( Crassostrea virginica ) abundant in the waterways throughout the present-day New York City region. Evidence of their habitation can still be seen in shell middens along

6068-558: The southern end of Manhattan Island . General George Washington led the entire Continental Army to New York City in anticipation of the British attack. Howe used the strategic location of Staten Island as a staging ground for the invasion. Over 140 British ships arrived over the summer of 1776 and anchored off the shores of Staten Island at the entrance to New York Harbor. The British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries numbered about 30,000. Howe established his headquarters in New Dorp at

6150-518: The supercontinent of Pangaea . The Palisades Sill has been designated a National Natural Landmark , being "the best example of a thick diabase sill in the United States". It underlies a portion of northwest Staten Island, with a visible outcropping in Travis , off Travis Road in the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge . This is the same formation that appears in New Jersey and upstate New York along

6232-407: The terminus of the glacier is known as the terminal moraine present along the central portion of the island. The evidence of these glacial periods is visible in the remaining wooded areas of Staten Island in the form of glacial erratics and kettle ponds . At the retreat of the ice sheet, Staten Island was connected by land to Long Island, as the Narrows had not yet formed. Geologists' reckonings of

6314-406: The three eastern towns of Queens County that had not joined the city the year before—the towns of Hempstead , North Hempstead , and Oyster Bay —formally seceded from Queens County to form the new Nassau County . The borough of Staten Island, coextensive with Richmond County, was officially the borough of Richmond until the name was changed in 1975 to reflect its common appellation, while leaving

6396-661: The time. In 1729, the county seat was moved to the village of Richmond Town, located at the headwaters of the Fresh Kills near the center of the island. By 1771, the island's population had grown to 2,847. Staten Islanders were solidly supportive of the Crown, and the island played a significant role in the American Revolutionary War . General George Washington once called Islanders "our most inveterate enemies". As support of independence spread throughout

6478-487: The towns of Kingsbridge , West Farms , and Morrisania ) and then following a referendum in 1894 (towns of Westchester , Williamsbridge , and the southern portion of Eastchester ). Ultimately in 1914, the present-day separate Bronx County became the most recent county to be created in the State of New York. The borough of Queens consists of what formerly was only the western part of a then-larger Queens County. In 1899,

6560-508: Was a distinct regional tradition which existed during the climatic optimum , starting around 6,500 years ago. During this warm period, forests advanced northward and temperatures were warmer than they were in the late 20th century. It is associated with the northern frontier and transition area between boreal forest and tundra in what is now northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories , near Lake Athabasca . However,

6642-568: Was closed in 1994 through the Base Realignment and Closure process because of its small size and the expense of basing personnel there. Fresh Kills and its tributaries are part of the largest tidal wetland ecosystem in the region. Its creeks and wetlands have been designated a Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation . Opened along Fresh Kills as

6724-458: Was formerly known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government and the media. It has also been referred to as the "borough of parks" due to its 12,300 acres of protected parkland and over 170 parks. The North Shore —especially

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