VISIT
Open Hours:
Thursday & Friday: 12-5PM
Saturday & Sunday: 10AM-5PM
Moving Chains is currently open as scheduled without activation of the chains, which must undergo periodic maintenance. During open hours Thursday-Sunday, visitors may continue to walk through the piece and view the sculpture from the top of Outlook Hill. Please check back here and at www.govsisland.com for updates.
Do I need to register to see Moving Chains?
No, registration is not required to see Moving Chains. However, you will need to reserve a ferry ticket to travel to Governors Island. Please see below for more information on ferry tickets.
How do the ferries work?
From Lower Manhattan:
Ferries to Governors Island run daily between the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, Slip 7, in Lower Manhattan and Soissons Landing on the Island. The ferry trip takes roughly 10 minutes one-way. Ferries are ADA accessible. All Governors Island Trust-operated ferry tickets are round trip; visitors are not required to select a return ferry time at purchase and may leave Governors Island on any ferry. Click here to see the Governors Island Ferry schedule and get tickets.
Round-trip ferry tickets cost $4 for adults. Governors Island ferries are always free for children 12 and under, seniors 65 and up, residents of NYCHA, IDNYC holders, current and former military service members, and Governors Island members. Ferries are free for all passengers before noon on Saturdays and Sundays. There is no surcharge for bicycles or strollers at any time.
Please arrive 15-minutes prior to your ferry departure time with your ticket ready to display on your smartphone or printed for inspection. Visitors are required to wear face coverings at all times while queueing, boarding, riding, and disembarking Governors Island ferries. See Governors Island rules and regulations here.
From Brooklyn:
NYC Ferry serves Governors Island daily, year-round on the South Brooklyn route, arriving at the Yankee Pier Landing on the Island. Ferries are ADA accessible. Schedule and travel times vary along this route, for ticketing information and full schedules click here to see the NYC Ferry South Brooklyn Route & Schedules.
Where do I go once I leave the ferry?
Moving Chains is located at the base of Outlook Hill on Craig Road North.
From Soissons Landing (Manhattan side), go straight to the top of the hill directly in front of the ferry exit. At the top of the hill, turn right onto Andes Road and continue until you reach Hay Road at Castle Williams. To move around Castle Williams, take a right at Hay Road and then a quick left on Carder Road to reach Craig Road North, on the waterfront. Follow Craig Road North along the water, moving away from the ferry landing, until you reach Moving Chains. This takes approximately 15-minutes from the ferry. Trams are available to guests Friday-Sunday. See accessibility notes below for more information.
From Yankee Pier (Brooklyn side), go straight from the ferry landing to Division Road. Turn left and continue onto East Way. Follow East Way until you reach Craig Road North and turn left. Continue along Craig Road North until you reach Moving Chains. This takes approximately 11-minutes from the ferry.
Is Moving Chains ADA accessible?
ADA accessible pathways are provided at either end of Moving Chains. The structure itself has a wooden floor with a surface similar to wooden decking on a house.
Ferries to Governors Island are wheelchair accessible with ramps that lead on and off the ferry. There is a hill after getting off the ferry near a set of concrete stairs and an accessible ramp.
Wheelchair-accessible trams leaving from Soissons Landing at the Manhattan ferry stop are available to guests Friday-Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Please note that though trams try to be available every 30 minutes when ferries unload, tram access is not guaranteed upon arrival. Wait for trams to arrive on Andes Road across from the Governors Island Welcome Center. Trams take visitors to requested stops and return based on arrangements with the driver; once on the tram you can request to be taken to Moving Chains.
All routes to Moving Chains on the Island are paved. Please see the site map to locate ADA accessible bathrooms and the most direct routes to the site from either ferry terminal.
In what languages is information about Moving Chains provided?
Translations of on-site texts in English will be available in Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Creole. Translated text is accessed via a QR code posted on signs.
Is food allowed on the Island?
Visitors are welcome to bring their own food and eat at one of the many picnic areas across the Island. Click here for a current list of food vendors on Governors Island.
Where are public restrooms located?
Indoor restrooms are located inside the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center near Soissons Landing. Trailer restrooms are available at Yankee Pier, the west end of Liggett Terrace, South Battery and near Slide Hill. All restrooms are ADA accessible. Refer to the site map above for locations.
Please see the Governors Island website for more information about visiting the Island. For general questions about Moving Chains, contact programming@creativetime.org.
About Governors Island
Governors Island Arts, the public arts and cultural program presented by the Trust for Governors Island, creates transformative encounters with art for all New Yorkers, inviting artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the context of the Island’s layered histories, environments, and architecture. Governors Island Arts achieves this mission through temporary and long-term public art commissions, an annual Organization in Residence program in the Island’s historic houses, and free public programs and events in partnership with a wide range of cross-disciplinary NYC cultural organizations. For more information, visit govisland.org.
Land Acknowledgement
We respectfully acknowledge that Moving Chains is located on Paggank (Nut Island) within Lenapehoking, the unceded land of the Lenape people. The island was first commandeered from the Lenape, who used it as a seasonal fishing camp shared between tribes, by the Dutch East India Company in the 1600s. Eventually, it would become the seat for the British colonial governor, causing the further displacement of the area’s Indigenous people, who began to move into the territory now known as Canada and westward. Later, much of the Lenape population was forcibly relocated by the United States government, later establishing the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario. Despite this coerced removal, there are and have always been Lenape inhabitants living on the land now known as New York City, a city home to the largest and most diverse urban Indigenous population today. Currently, The Lenape Center is leading efforts to establish a permanent Lenape cultural center in Mannahatta.
In parallel, we recognize the 20,000 free and enslaved Africans buried between 1630-1795 on the 6.6 acres of land now known as the African Burial Ground National Monument, just over two miles from Governors Island in Lower Manhattan. Together with these early residents of African descent, we acknowledge the multiple free Black communities established across present day New York City and Brooklyn, including Newtown in Queens; Weeksville in Crown Heights; and Seneca Village in Manhattan, which was razed in the mid-1880s to build Central Park.
Beneath the colonial identification of any site in North America, there are histories that have been erased, overlooked, contested, and forgotten. We understand that land acknowledgements are often used as an empty stand-in for actual decolonization work and are committed to confronting the ongoing effects of this colonial legacy. Read more about our commitments towards decolonization here.
OVERVIEW: THE AMERICAN MANIFEST
RIVER YEARS: A BLACK GOTHAM EXPERIENCE
MOVING CHAINS: TOWARD ABOLITION
