By Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong
More than 250 people from both sides of the Hudson River visited Constitution Island on Saturday (July 26), for Garden Day, hosted by the Constitution Island Association in cooperation with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which administers the historic property, given to the federal government more than a century ago.
Attendees boarded a ferry at either West Point or Garrison Landing for a short ride to the island (or near-island peninsula), where lectures, flower-arranging sessions for children, refreshments and other attractions defied the overcast weather. Constitution Island contains Revolutionary War fortifications and during the fighting anchored one end of a massive chain that American forces stretched across the Hudson to West Point to block British warships. Later, the remains of a war-time barracks became part of the Warner House, home to two acclaimed 19th-century female authors.
Photos by L.S. Armstrong
