Peter Minuit Plaza

Peter Minuit Plaza is a public plaza at the southern tip of Manhattan at State and Whitehall Streets, serving as the main access point for the Staten Island Ferry at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal. The plaza is named for Peter Minuit, the Director-General of New Netherland who legendarily purchased Manhattan from the Lenape people in 1626.

The story of Minuit's purchase of Manhattan for goods valued at 60 guilders (often simplified to '$24 worth of beads') is one of the most enduring legends in American history, though modern historians have complicated this narrative considerably. The concept of land ownership as understood by Europeans was likely foreign to the Lenape, and the transaction probably represented something more like a sharing arrangement than a sale.

The plaza was redesigned and reopened in 2009 with a striking glass-and-steel canopy designed by the architectural firm Smith-Miller + Hawkinson. The undulating glass roof provides shelter for the thousands of commuters who pass through daily on their way to and from the Staten Island Ferry, one of the last free commuter ferry services in the country.

The plaza connects to The Battery to the west and to the waterfront esplanade along the East River to the east. Its location at the convergence of multiple transit lines (subway, bus, and ferry) makes it one of the most heavily trafficked public spaces in Lower Manhattan.

Peter Minuit Plaza functions as both a working transit hub and a gateway to the harbor, offering views of the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island, and the New York Harbor that greet arriving ferry passengers and tempt departing ones to linger. It is one of the first open spaces visitors encounter when arriving in Manhattan by water.