(Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)
Aquarium and Battery Park, New York City. The Aquarium, formerly known as Castle Garden Fort, is located at the foot of Battery Park, and is open to the public daily from 9:00am to 5:0pm. Here can be seen in large glass tanks the most valuable and complete collection of fish, seals, turtles and other deep sea inhabitants in existence. At the enttrance of the harbor is the Statue of Liberty and a little further up is Ellis Island, through which all imigrants landing in New York City must pass.
More information from Wikipedia:
The New York Aquarium opened on December 10, 1896, at Castle Garden in Battery Park. Its first director was the respected fish expert, Dr. Tarleton Hoffman Bean (1895–1898). On October 31, 1902, the Aquarium was adopted into the care of what was then the New York Zoological Society. At the time, the Aquarium housed only 150 specimens of wildlife. Over time, its most famous director, the distinguished zoologist Charles Haskins Townsend, enlarged the collections considerably, and the Aquarium attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Early in October 1941, the Aquarium at Battery Park was controversially closed based on claims of NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses that the proposed construction of a tunnel from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn might undermine Castle Clinton's foundation. Many of the Aquarium’s sea creatures were temporarily housed at the Bronx Zoo until the new aquarium was built after World War II. On June 6, 1957, the Aquarium opened its doors at its new location in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
