Gov. Island’s last hurrah this year

Summer saw double the visitors from last year

From Prince Harry’s polo playing to the punk music of Reagan Youth and 50 Cent’s gangsta rap, Governors Island hosted an array of programs this summer, but its biggest weekend had nothing scheduled: more than 26,000 came over Labor Day.  

The bucolic 172-acre former Coast Guard base, a free 7-minute ferry ride from Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, clearly benefited from the staycation craze, with a record 266,000 visitors this season, shattering last year’s 128,000 island-goers, according to the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation.  

This weekend will be the last chance to visit before the island’s winter slumber. When it reopens next year, the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, currently a landlocked high school in Bushwick, will take root. (Students have already been working on the island conducting oyster bed studies.)

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is creating artist studios later this year, which will be open to the public when crowds return next season.