The New York Aquarium first opened on December 10, 1896, at Castle Garden in Battery Park, making it the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States. Its first director was the respected fish expert, Dr. Tarleton Hoffman Bean (1895-1898). On October 31, 1902, the Aquarium was adopted into the care of what was then the New York Zoological Society. At the time, the Aquarium housed only 150 specimens of wildlife. Over time, its most famous director, the distinguished zoologist Charles Haskins Townsend, enlarged the collections considerably, and the Aquarium attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Early in October 1941, the Aquarium at Battery Park was controversially closed based on claims of NYC Parks Commissioner that the proposed construction of a tunnel from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn may undermine Castle Clinton's foundation. Many of the Aquar
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