North Ferry

{{As of|2025}} the North Ferry operates daily between Shelter Island, New York, and Greenport, New York. During the day, service is on a 10–20 minute headway.{{cite web | url=https://northferry.com/schedule.html | title=Schedule | accessdate=April 29, 2025 | publisher= North Ferry Co.}} During nominal operation, the company typically targets clock-face scheduling with departures at 15-minute intervals.

{{seealso|Shelter Island, New York#Shelter Island Heights established}}

Shelter Island sits between the North and South Forks of Long Island, surrounded by Shelter Island Sound. Regular ferry service between Shelter Island and the South Fork may have begun as early as 1793.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/06/nyregion/island-gatekeepers-across-two-centuries-on-the-ferry.html | title=Island Gatekeepers; Across Two Centuries on the Ferry | newspaper=The New York Times | date=6 July 1994 | last1=Marks | first1=Peter |access-date=April 29, 2025}}{{cite web | url=https://www.marinelink.com/news/passenger-vesselsto306717 | title=Passenger Vessels: To the North, South —And a Little Island Sheltered | date=15 January 2003 | website=MarineLink | access-date=14 March 2025}} Jonathan Preston, an English immigrant, established the first regular service between Shelter Island and the North Fork in the 1850s. The state of New York granted him a charter in 1859. Preston sold the service to Charles Costa in 1863. Costa operated it for two years before selling it to Samuel Clark and Charles Harlow. They, in turn, sold it to Benjamin H. Sisson in 1869. Sisson sold it in 1871 to the Shelter Island Grove and Camp Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church.{{sfnp|Duvall|1952|p=202}}

The Association was formed by a group of men from Brooklyn, New York, seeking a site for camp meetings. They led the development of the Shelter Heights area, and many of the buildings they built are now part of the Shelter Island Heights Historic District.{{sfnp|Duvall|1952|pp=178–179}} The Association reformed as a property development group in 1886.{{cite news |title=Going out of the camp meeting business |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-going-out-of-the-camp-mee/171292095/ |newspaper=Brooklyn Eagle |date=1886-01-16 |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=April 29, 2025}} They incorporated the Greenport and Shelter Island Ferry Company in 1883 to manage the ferry to the North Fork.{{cite news |title=Notes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-times-notes/171260226/ |newspaper=The Brooklyn Daily Times |date=1883-01-15 |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=April 29, 2025}}

In 1958, the company moved its ferry slip in Greenport from Main Street to Third Street, adjacent to the Greenport station of the Long Island Rail Road. This move was prompted by traffic congestion during the summer season.{{cite news |title=Ferryboats Will Use New Dock To End Greenport Auto Jams |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-ferryboats-wil/171260191/ |newspaper=Newsday |date=1958-01-23 |page=11 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=April 29, 2025}} In the late 1970s the company opposed plans by the Mascony Ferry and Transport Service to implement a new direct ferry service between Greenport and New London, Connecticut, bypassing the Cross Sound Ferry ferry at Orient Point. Also opposing the new service was Cross Sound Ferry, Amtrak, and Greenport itself.{{cite news |last=Sudol|first=Jane|title=Second Ferry To Start Soon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant-second-ferry-to-start-s/171260259/ |newspaper=Hartford Courant |date=1978-09-19 |page=11 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=April 29, 2025}} The current North Ferry Co. succeeded the Greenport and Shelter Island Ferry Company in 1979. The Shelter Island Heights Property Owners Association, successor to the original Shelter Island Grove and Camp Meeting Association, continues to own the ferry company.{{sfnp|Bleyer|2019|p=136}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book | last=Bleyer | first=Bill | title=Long Island and the Sea: A Maritime History | url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Long_Island_and_the_Sea/6TuNDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 | date=2019 | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | location=Chicago | isbn=978-1-4396-6660-9}}
• {{cite book | title=The history of Shelter Island, 1652-1932, with a supplement, 1932-1952 | last=Duvall | first=Ralph G. | url=http://archive.org/details/historyofshelter00duva | date=1952 | edition=2nd | publisher=Privately printed | location=Shelter Island Heights, New York | oclc= 3521316}}

• {{Official site|https://northferry.com}}

Category:Shelter Island (town), New York

Category:Greenport, Suffolk County, New York

Category:Ferries of New York (state)