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For that afternoon from the lower end of Manhattan New York City station brings you the dedication and opening ceremonies of the newly reconstructed Battery Park in addition to Mayor Vincent current Helen Terri the speakers will include Manhattan Borough president Robert F. Wagner Jr and would have Cavanaugh junior commissioner of Marine and aviation Parks Department Commissioner Robert Moses and James a sherry executive officer of the Department of Parks and I'll introduce our chairman is Mr Sherry. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. The ceremonies were opened last saying the national anthem accompanied by the U.S. placed Army band and governor. Of. The. Re. Re. Re. It is I'm not her and I'm privileged from me you introduced the Honorable Robert Moses Commissioner Paul. Thapar My. Best man. Honored guests. Ladies and gentlemen. We asked the historian of. Battery Park to come here today. And on a con of illness he could come down from a. Matter no more Bob batter a mark of history. Than anyone living. And it was a very eloquent speaker as well well as an excellent writer I asked him to put down briefly. What he would have said had he been here. And this is what Rodman Gilder wrote me. Battery Park the choices Bill Park in New York City is by far the most historical spot of its size in the United States. Bears the gas to the Dutch governor St Ives and Joe was then a frightfully mutilated French priest used to take the air and sixteen forty three while recovering from the tortures inflicted upon him by the Mohawks. There at number one Broadway a handsome two and a half storied whiling General George Washington at his headquarters in seventeen seventy six until he and his. Army were driven from Manhattan by the largest and most heavily armed Expeditionary Force Great Britain had ever sent overseas here when the battery was only a strip of shop front along the line of State Street President George Washington dressed in somber blacks would stroll after our day of political conferences at the executive mansion on Broadway a few doors below Trinity Church in the nineteenth century the greatest of European vocalists Abbey out Boney Jenny Lind and others were heard in Castle Garden the city's largest or auditorium. Built on the walls the floor clipped. Yonder and when Castle Garden became an immigration station hundreds and thousands of future citizens poured through what came to be known as the nation's gateway during all these years the battery as a pocket its ups and downs especially as a unique prominent with a view of one of the most appropriate arbors in the world it was praised by a long succession of writers foreign and domestic and when it fell on evil Times editors and correspondents expressed their sense of outrage and one of these periods was during the era of Boss Tweed while Battery Park was greatly enlarged for more than twelve years rescue some garbage was dumped into the shallow water around Castle Garden while the city fathers harvested the graft. The city has to be warmly congratulated now after being necessarily deprived of Battery Park while the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was building. The public young and old now has access to a pocket is better design better landscape more practical and economical and that will be in time more beautiful than it ever has been before and its long history. And I present to you as the first speaker. Commissioner of Marina navigation the honorable Edward F. Cavanaugh Jr. Imagine the Moses American public Terry. For President why go to Mr Right and collect darning. Other distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen. It's a real pleasure for me to have this privilege of participating greatly in this very important rededication. This site has commissioned a Moses was pointed out. Is rich in the history and tradition of this city. Apart from the historic facts mentioned by commission of knowledge of. The history of this city in fact the city itself had its inception on the site. As far as tradition is concerned a tradition has been wrapped up with the Marine and maritime industry of this city over more than four hundred years. You see around you here all around this part of the large office buildings which are the world headquarters of every large and important steamship company and every large and important company engaged in marine work in the marine industry. Addition to that almost two million people a year in Bach condition bought from this park area on to the ships going in and out of our harbor on excursion work. There are other factors that make it traditional one of the most important I could mention is that back over four hundred years this POK has looked out on a panorama of the development of the maritime industry in this city. Everything from the Indians Birchbox canoes to the majestic line as such in the end I was in the United States passed by within a few hundred feet of the shores of a silo. It's only a matter of some sixty six years ago but on an occasion just like this with all this color the fly and fire boats and other tugs and equipment in the water the Goddess of Liberty out there behind you looked over on this scene because this park was used as a grandstand vantage point for the thousands and thousands of people who came down here to watch the ceremonies across the water while President Cleveland dedicated Bedloe as Ireland as the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The significance of that history and my position is wrapped up in this soil. And apart from the beauty of the park itself and all this lawn and landscaping we see around us we must say the commission of Moses some years ago envisioned envisaged a much broader development than just the park itself. Envisions the remodelling the reconstruction of P.S. one and here's a just in the north up there. Envisage the remodelling and the. Complete rebuilding of both the ferry terminals on our south. Shore president Wigner within the last year or so has just completed the magnificent underpass under this or that takes the heavy traffic around under the lower part of the city and keep it away from the congestion. Bars the remodelling jobs on the waterfront that I've mentioned the Department of Marina navigation is well on the way with their plan and probably within the next three or four March the white or street terminal just for the south here will be started on the way to complete remodelling and modification will be entirely new for Saud's no experience no interiors with an extended and fully and large waiting room. All each thing bring to mind mind one thing that is. Pretty sending entirely from any matter of politics I think all of us must reach a conclusion that these projects in the completion of these projects the projects that have just been completed recently and will be completed in the near future are all the fruits of good government and do show that the public officials here the speaker excluded. Have an energy and a willing to attempt to give you the kind of a city you want. Apart from all out I think it does show that here in the heart of this great city among the time all can come are all of the financial district considering the complications of government and problems today your officials hears Well the tone to one understanding that it is important to have leisure and an appreciation of things beautiful such as this park and an appreciation of history and the tradition the trapped up in the Park thank you very much thank you. Thank you very much and A I'm glad that Commissioner Kavanagh mentioned the cooperation of the other departments I think I should add to the list the federal government and the newer barge office which is designed and before long will be underway. Among the public officials who will be banned from endlessly interested in this area and I've had a great deal to do with this development and will have more to do with its completion is the man I give you and I'll borrow President Robert F. Wagner Jr. No I was in there and tell a Perry Mason the Kavanaugh elected their name with the Moran ladies and gentlemen it's a great pleasure for me even on this very warm day to participate in these very impressive ceremonies as I know a lot of us. Are happy and proud of the great work that's been done here in the development of this pot. As the other speakers have mentioned a great many departments have cooperated and I'm proud to say that our president happens office cooperated wholeheartedly under the leadership of Commissioner Moses here to make this pocket tract of and make the surrounding areas attractive and as an aid to the relief of traffic we certainly hope commissioner that within another year or so we'll be able to open up the South Street elevated highway for traffic the foundations of practically been completed and the soon as we get steel we can move ahead to the construction of the superstructure but I think this park. Here that we dedicate today is not just something that's going to mean a great deal of happiness to people living in the borough of Manhattan because the people who will use it up people who come from all clocks of our city and from our adjourning counties and states come here to work and they can find in this park an opportunity for a little relaxation during the day and to enjoy the beauties of our city here in the enjoy the beauties of the scenic beauty of the waterfront. And I know to too many of us we recall out here on this side of this park was old castle garden where so many poor families came from overseas to find hope and opportunity here in America one of them was my father and I know so many others because practically all of us are either one or two generations away from families who came here I have a little tear in our eyes a day when we see the spot here where America opened up its arms to give to people from foreign shaughs the great chances we have here in democracy and I know that we'll continue in the years to come to work and fight for those ideals and for a better city and with the cooperation of the departments they've done a wonderful job and certainly we must at the same time pay great credit to our civic leaders the mayor and Pilot Terry and my other members of the Board of Estimate who made possibly financing of these great projects I know where proud of it as New York is we're proud to be here and we're proud of the great work that the government has shown to the people here because they can do things and will do things to make life a little better for them thank you very much. Or I present the last speaker I want to say happy we are that. So many of our friends are Aaron I think to Italy up here on the flat on the planet his entire life has been spent around the waterfront and. Father and grandfather before him when it children and grandchildren commissioner of the Port Authority Gene Moran. Collector the partners got back from a quick trip round trip on the new boat. And come up here at. Darty. And I give you Marian Pillitteri. Thank. You madam always is for President Wagner and Mr Cavanaugh our collective burning commissioner Moran ladies and gentlemen. Is a great pleasure for me as mayor of the fifty of New York to take part in the reopening of battery pop for it is not only a notable step in the progress of improvement of areas along the city's waterfront for recreational purposes but it reached advocates and thinking of Pfizer. The city of New York Place of birth as well. For centuries and a quarter of this ground has played its important part in the history of the new world it has felt the steps of explorers colonizers Mariners conquerors Patriots and immigrants it is closely bound up with the city's joys and sorrows the struggles for freedom the establishment of its first places of worship in the plants and that with its social economic maritime and cultural growth Giovanni Di powered sound off the Florentine captain first landed here in fifteen twenty four he was followed by various French Portuguese Spanish and Dutch Mariners seeking trade with the Indians and sixteen hundred nine came Henry Hudson whose report on this splendid Harbor and its possibilities part trade and calm as a chef. Led to the city's first permanent settlement here fourteen years later by point speaking while looms under the auspices of the West in the company. We all know the story of Governor General Peter minuet purchase of this island and sixteen hundred twenty six for the equivalent of twenty four dollars worth of goods and hardway the prorated price for the land now comprising Battery Park was approximately a quarter of one cents its present land value is estimated at seventy four million dollars and its historical sentimental and recreational worth is incalculable deeper than these days when astronomical Prager's are almost commonplace after sixteen twenty six under the plaids of the Netherlands Great Britain and the United States the battery has always been an important center of New York's light where the city's close ties with the city and ships and trade could clearly be seen and felt. It has been a great place of public assembly in times of stress or jubilation heroes statesman kings presidents and other distinguished guests of the city have had their first welcome there and countless thousands of new Americans board through the doors of all castles gotten on their way to enrich the fabric of our country's life. Visitors to New York from many lands as well as our own have come the battery poxy the aquarium and the Statue of Liberty are in bike on days to hear Jimmy Ling sing under the auspices of the great P.T. Barnum. The battery has always been a favorite place for seafaring well man as well as Perth landsmen would like to see tall ships go by as they did this morning when Lee United States passed by it is particularly fitting that this vantage point should be restocked at a time when the revival of the great American Merchant Marine has culminated in the winning of the blue ribbon by the end of the Atlantic by the great liner United States. Bettery pock has welcomed and bad welcome and fond the yacht to many great passenger liners and sturdy cargo vessels over the years now New Yorkers can again thrill from this vantage point to the sight of American ships that are periods and on the waterways of this great port ships that end numbers speed efficiency and beauty are on Excel. It is as a recreational area full of the flavor of the sea a Marine activity that Battery Park has such a unique value the twelve years during which it has been closed EB seemed very long years to nearby office workers visitors and all New Yorkers but the results seem to have made the closing well worthwhile underneath us we have the great Brooklyn Battery Tunnel constructed by the tri bar bridge and bunk tunnel of already had a cost of upwards of eighty million dollars and the West Street South Street on the paths constructed by the fur president of Manhattan at a cost of all birth ten million dollars. Or were these and utilizing the payload from their construction for the popping the pox has built a larger more useful and more beautiful Battery Park at a cost of almost two and one half million dollars this week dedicate the day I am glad that the city's birthplace has been so splendidly reconstructed I am glad that the monuments to man and events associated with the city's past had been restored and given more Advent take just settings where they can inspire all of us I am glad that the various commissioners and their staffs in a different minister called the Poppins and the agency have shown such an outstanding example of coordination and cooperation in the difficulties involved in the planning and execution of the three major construction projects involved. I look forward to many years up future enjoyment of this park by millions of New Yorkers and as this Marine panorama unfolds and its trees grow larger and more beautiful. On behalf of all the sudden zones of New York I congratulate you Commissioner Moses Borough President Wagner commissioner Cavanaugh and all of the other agencies involved in bringing there's a part to which prohibition and to all others can chime may I thank you in behalf of a grateful eight million people for bringing there's wonderful project though the light from the sun as we see it today thank you very much thank you. As concludes the ceremony. And from the southern tip of Manhattan your city station has brought you the dedication and opening ceremonies of the newly reconstructed Battery Park. And principal speaker this afternoon was Mayor Vincent R. impellor Terry this has been a public service broadcast of your city station we return you now to our studios in the municipal building this is the a municipal Broadcasting System.