Staten Island Ferry Boat Named for Early African American Community

A new Staten Island ferry boat is being named for a community founded by African Americans in the early 1800s. The boat will be named The Sandy Ground, after the historic settlement on the South Shore.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city wants to honor the site's heritage, "but also to help everyone know that Sandy Ground was the oldest, continuously inhabited free African-American settlement in the United States of America."

The area was first settled by oyster men from Maryland in the mid-1800s, and now includes five land-marked buildings, among them the A.M.E. Zion Church, a cemetery, and several homes, according to the city. 

The city expects to have the three new Staten Island ferry boats in service in 2019.