• 16th Infantry Regiment, Fort Jay, New York City, 1938.

    Governors Island

    National Monument New York

There are park alerts in effect.
show Alerts »

  • Governors Island closed July 4th

    The island will be closed on July 4th and no National Park Service tours or programs will take place that day. NPS weekday ranger tours and programs will still be offered on Wednesday, July 3rd and Friday July 5th.

  • Phone number change

    Hurricane Sandy destroyed the island's telephone connections to Manhattan. Our temporary information number for the park is now via cell phone at 646-241-2670. Other contact information can be found at www.nps.gov/gois/contacts. More »

Online Games

Protect the Harbor!

Fort Jay and Castle Williams, the two historic forts that make up Governors Island National Monument, were built to protect New York City from naval attack. The online game "Protect the Harbor" (part of the WebRangers program) is a fun way to teach students about the War of 1812, and test how well they can defend a coastal city like New York! They will also discover where other forts in New York Harbor were located, and why this system was so important to the brand new United States.


Become a National Park WebRanger

Join in the fun by participating in the National Park Service's on-line Junior Ranger program for kids of all ages. If you love your National Parks, Monuments and Historic Sites, this site is for you. Play more than 50 games and learn about your National Parks.

Share park stories and pictures with other WebRangers around the world in the "My Community" section. Now there are over 49,000 registered WebRangers; and over 1,600 have earned WebRangers patches by completing all of the activities.

Did You Know?

Author Janet Lambert and books she wrote while living on Governors Island.

Janet Lambert (1893-1973) was a military wife for over 30 years, and an actress and author of 54 books of young adult fiction for girls in the 1940s and 50s. She wrote about the lives and the coming of age choices between career or family by daughters of U.S. Army families during World War II and the Korean War-era. She wrote many of her books while living on Governors Island.