THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM; 



The New York Aquarium is the largest in the world, both 

 as regards size of building and number and variety of speci- 

 mens exhibited. It is situated in Battery Park at the foot 

 of Broadway and may be reached by all elevated, surface 

 and subway lines running to South Ferry. The nearest 

 elevated station is Battery Park; the nearest subway sta- 

 tion, Bowling Green. 



Erected as a fortress by the United States Government 

 in 1807, the outer walls of the building are nine feet thick 

 and contain thirty gun embrasures; the walls of the old 

 ammunition rooms are fifteen feet thick. The fort occupied 

 a mole 300 yards from the mainland, but the intervening 

 space was later filled in. In 1823 it was ceded by Congress 

 to the City of New York and became an amusement hall 

 known as Castle Garden, and later an opera house, where, 

 in 1850, Jenny Lind made her first appearance in America. 

 From 1855 to 1891, the building was used as an immigra- 

 tion station, and in 1896 it was opened as an aquarium by 

 the Department of Public Parks of New York City. In 

 1902 its management was transferred to the New York 

 Zoological Society, a private scientific association which has 



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