Governors Island To Reopen, Statue Of Liberty To Begin Summer Hours, On Memorial Day Weekend

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Governors Island will reopen, and summer operating hours will begin at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, on Memorial Day Weekend.

Starting on May 24, the ferries to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty will depart Battery Park, as well as Liberty State Park in Jersey City, at 8:30 a.m. seven days a week, the National Park Service announced Thursday.

There will also be an extra departure from both locations at 5 p.m. each day.

The last boats back to Manhattan and Jersey City will depart at 6:45 p.m.

The hours will be in effect from May 24 through Sept. 1.

Advance ticket purchases are required for visits to the Statue of Liberty's crown and observation deck and the museum of immigration on Ellis Island. They are available through the park's concessioner Statue Cruises at www.StatueCruises.com.

Governors Island will also reopen to visitors May 24, and will be open seven days a week from Memorial Day through the end of September for the first time ever.

This year, visitors will enjoy 30 new acres of park that will be opening for the first time this year, and an assortment of arts, cultural and recreational programs.

The Trust for Governors Island has been working to transform the former military base into an open public space, as well as a site for educational, nonprofit, and commercial facilities.

In the summer of 2013, the trust broke ground on the Hills, which once completed will rise 25 to 80 feet above the island and provide visitors with a panoramic view of the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, and the Lower Manhattan skyline.

Last summer, crowds flocked to Governors Island for Fête Paradiso, a traveling festival featuring an assortment of vintage French carnival rides and carousels, a 1910 Limonaire fairground organ, sideshow performances, and a beer garden.

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