Liberty State Park

• 1. Introduction

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  Liberty State Park stands on Jersey City shoreline where, in 1916, an explosion killed as many as seven people. The blast caused $20 million in property damage and was felt across the Tri-State Region. Today that same ground draws approximately 4.5 million visitors each year. That makes it the most visited state park in New Jersey and one of the most visited in the United States. The park stretches across 1,212 acres on Upper New York Bay, facing Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Yet 240 acres at its center remain fenced off, sealed from the public for decades. How did a landfilled, industrialized shoreline become a place millions of people seek out every year? The full story begins with a small island and the people who once passed through it on their way to becoming Americans.

• 2. Gateway on Landfill

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  In the latter half of the 19th century, a small island named Black Tom was joined to the New Jersey mainland by landfill. The reclaimed ground became a major hub for shipping, manufacturing, and transportation within the Port of New York and New Jersey. At its center stood the Communipaw Terminal, a combined ferry and train station. An estimated 10.5 million immigrants passed through it, roughly two-thirds of all those processed at Ellis Island. They arrived and dispersed across the United States. The station served the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Reading Railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. It operated from 1889 to 1964.

  After the terminal closed, the waterfront entered a period of industrial neglect. Four Jersey City residents pushed for its transformation: Audrey Zapp, Theodore Conrad, Morris Pesin, and J. Owen Grundy. Working as environmentalists and historians, they led the movement that produced Liberty State Park. The land passed from the city to the state in 1965. The park opened in 1976, timed to the nation's bicentennial celebrations. Their names now mark the waterfront they fought for. The terminal where those millions arrived now houses a museum. It also serves as the departure point for ferry rides to Ellis Island and Liberty Island.

• 3. The Sealed Ground

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  Superstorm Sandy struck in October 2012, causing an estimated $20 million in damage to the park. The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal did not reopen until June 2016, following a $20 million renovation. The Nature Center similarly went dark and did not reopen until June 2021.

  A six-acre train shed is sealed off and saturated with asbestos. The surrounding land carries chromium, arsenic, and petroleum, the accumulated residue of industrial activity. On the 11th of January 2018, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced plans to remediate the interior land for public use. The work was to proceed in phases, with the first phase covering a 23-acre parcel. Funding was designated from natural resource damage settlements. Work was originally planned for 2021 but did not start until 2023. In 2024, the NJDEP committed an additional $7.3 million toward continued revitalization.

  Governor Chris Christie's administration proposed leasing large sections of the waterfront to private marinas in 2017. That drew strong opposition. The Liberty State Park Conservation, Recreation, and Community Inclusion Act, passed in July 2022, established a 17-member design task force within the NJDEP. It gave the local community formal standing in decisions about the park's future. In 2023, NJDEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette assured the public that any new recreational facilities would not be for-profit operations. Caven Point, a 22-acre stretch of man-made land adjacent to Liberty National Golf Course, remains among the areas that advocates have sought to protect. It is also the park's only sandy beach and home to various migratory birds.

• 4. A Landscape of Memorials

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  Liberation, a 1985 bronze by Nathan Rapoport, stands as a memorial to the Holocaust. It depicts a United States soldier carrying a survivor out of a Nazi death camp. La Vela di Colombo, designed by Gino Gianetti, takes the form of a two-story sail-shaped bronze monument. It sits on a stone base carved in the shape of a ship. The piece commemorates the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's westward voyage of 1492. It was a gift from the Government of Italy and the City of Genoa, dedicated in 1998.

  Empty Sky is the official state memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Jessica Jamroz and Frederic Schwartz designed it. Two parallel walls engraved with victims' names are oriented to face the former World Trade Center site. It was dedicated on the 10th of September 2011, marking the tenth anniversary of the attacks. Reclining Liberty, by artist Zaq Landsberg, was displayed in the park from May 2022 to April 2023. The work depicts the Statue of Liberty lying on her side. It had previously drawn attention when shown at Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park. Landsberg drew on reclining Buddha statues as inspiration. He has described the United States as "an entity forever upright and tall" and designed the piece as an invitation to reconsider that image.

• 5. Science and Shore

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  Liberty Science Center opened in 1993 as New Jersey's first major state science museum. It occupies the western portion of the park. The center holds the world's fifth largest IMAX Dome theater. It also contains the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. Among its permanent exhibits is the original Hoberman sphere, a silver, computer-driven engineering artwork created by Chuck Hoberman. The museum also houses naked mole-rats.

  Communipaw Cove, on the park's northern edge, is part of a 36-acre state nature preserve. It is one of the few remaining tidal salt marshes along the Hudson River estuary. The Nature Center within the preserve was designed by architect Michael Graves. Farther west lies the Interior Natural Area, which is closed to the public. It is being left to recover through natural processes from years of environmental damage. Halfway along the Liberty Walkway, a crescent-shaped promenade that extends south from the CRRNJ Terminal, a bridge connects to Ellis Island. Only authorized vehicles may cross it.

• 6. Stage and Screen

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  On Labor Day in 1980, Ronald Reagan launched his national campaign for the presidency on Liberty Island. He declared a wish for an administration that would let the world know Miss Liberty still "Lifts her lamp beside the golden door."

  In 1985, Hall and Oates performed a Fourth of July concert before 60,000 people at the park. The performance was later broadcast on HBO. In 2000, Andrea Bocelli gave a concert broadcast on PBS as American Dream: Andrea Bocelli's Statue of Liberty Concert. In 2008 and 2009, the All Points West Music and Arts Festival brought performers including Radiohead, Jay-Z, My Bloody Valentine, Coldplay, and Tool. In 2025, Pokémon GO Fest drew over 500,000 people to the park from the 6th to the 8th of June.

  The 1972 film The Godfather includes the exchange "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." That scene was filmed at the site in 1971, before the park was built, featuring characters Peter Clemenza and Rocco Lampone. In 1968, Funny Girl shot the "Don't Rain on My Parade" sequence inside the CRRNJ Terminal. In 1997, Men in Black depicted a scene on Morris Pesin Drive. The final scenes of the 2014 adaptation of Annie were also shot at the park.

  The park's Liberty Landing Marina has served since 2019 as the base for teams in the New York leg of Sail GP. Since 2023, an annual Juneteenth festival has brought artists including Musiq Soulchild, Crystal Waters, Robin S., Mario, and Jadakiss to the waterfront.