Liberty Island Liberty Island Liberty Island is a federally owned island in Upper New York Bay in the United States, best known as the location of the Statue of Liberty ("Liberty Enlightening the World"). The island is an exclave of the New York City borough of Manhattan, surrounded by the waters of Jersey City, New Jersey. Long known as Bedloe's Island, it was renamed by an act of the United States Congress in 1956. Liberty Island became part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1937 through Presidential Proclamation 2250, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1966, it was listed
Island Park, New York New York and Long Beach Railroad, as it was known, crossed Reynolds Channel. Between 1851 and 1870, Peter C. Barnum gained ownership of the southeastern lands of Long Island which were then part of Queens County. In 1874 his widow, Sara Ann, purchased Hog Island and sold it to the county for $13,000. The property became the site of the county's poor farm (Miele's Camp) and also a smallpox hospital. It was at this time that Hog Island was renamed Barnum Island in her honor. In 1910, Frank Lawson, a developer, and William Austin had a vision: to develop Island