A ferry is a boat that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus.
Avalon is the only incorporated city on Santa Catalina Island, in the California Channel Islands, and the southernmost city in Los Angeles County. The city is a resort community with the waterfront dominated by tourism-oriented businesses. The older parts of the town on the valley floor consist primarily of small houses and two and three-story buildings in various traditional architectural styles.
Bay Ferries Limited, or simply, Bay Ferries, is a ferry company operating in eastern Canada and is headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is a subsidiary of Northumberland Ferries Limited and a sister company to the defunct Bay Ferries Great Lakes Limited.
A water taxi or a water bus is a boat used to provide public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or on demand to many locations, operating in a similar manner to a taxi. A boat service shuttling between two points would normally be described as a ferry rather than a water bus or taxi.
Two Harbors, colloquially known as "The Isthmus", is a small unincorporated community island village on the island of Santa Catalina Island, California, United States, with a population of 298. It is the second center of population on the island, besides the city of Avalon. It is mainly a resort village. It has only one restaurant, one hotel and one general store. The village has about 150 permanent residents who live on the isthmus year-round. One notable feature was the one-room schoolhouse which closed in 2014.
New York Water Taxi (NYWT) is a water taxi service based in New York City. It offers sightseeing, charter, and commuter services mainly to points along the East River and Hudson River. It is one of several private operators of ferries, sightseeing boats, and water taxis in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is estimated that 100,000 people ride New York ferries every day.
The Balboa Fun Zone is a family destination located on the Balboa Peninsula in the city of Newport Beach, Orange County, California. The Balboa Fun Zone offers both an ocean and harbor experience for an estimated seven million annual visitors to Newport Beach.
The Catalina Flyer is a 600-passenger catamaran ferry operated by Catalina Passenger Service.
Condor Ferries is an operator of passenger and freight ferry services between the United Kingdom, Guernsey, Jersey and France.
Pentland Ferries is a privately owned, family company which has operated a ferry service between Gills Bay in Caithness, Scotland and St Margaret's Hope on South Ronaldsay in Orkney since May 2001. The company is one of only two major vehicle ferry operators plying within Scotland which are not subsidised by the Scottish Government or local authorities.
Seastreak is a private ferry company operating in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in New England. It provides high-speed commuter service between points on the Raritan Bayshore in Monmouth County, New Jersey and in Manhattan in New York City as well as special event and sightseeing excursions in the harbor and seasonal service to the New England coast.
SS Catalina, also known as The Great White Steamer, was a 301-foot steamship built in 1924 that provided passenger service on the 26-mile passage between Los Angeles and Santa Catalina Island from 1924 to 1975. According to the Steamship Historical Society of America, Catalina carried more passengers than any other vessel anywhere. From August 25, 1942, until April 22, 1946, the ship served as the Army troop ferry U.S. Army FS-99 at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation transporting more than 800,000 troops and other military personnel between embarkation camps and the departure piers.
The SS Cabrillo was a wooden passenger steamship operating in Los Angeles County, California, during the first half of the 20th century. The steamship provided transportation between the Port of Los Angeles and the ports of Avalon and Two Harbors on Santa Catalina Island.
Santa Catalina Island is a rocky island, part of the Channel Islands (California), off the coast of Southern California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina. The island covers an area of about 75 square miles. It features a diverse and rugged landscape, including rolling hills, canyons, coastal cliffs, and sandy beaches. The island's highest peak is Mount Orizaba, rising to an elevation of 2,097 feet. The island is 22 mi long and 8 mi across at its largest width. The island is situated in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 29 mi south-southwest of Long Beach, California. Politically, Catalina Island is part of Los Angeles County in District 4. Most of the island's land is unincorporated and is thus governed by the county.
Hornblower Cruises is a San Francisco–based charter yacht, dining cruise and ferry service company. In 2021, the company rebranded most of its services as City Cruises or City Experiences. In 2024, the company filed for bankruptcy protection.
Due to its unique geography, being made of two peninsulas surrounded by the Great Lakes, Michigan has depended on many ferries for connections to transport people, vehicles and trade. The most famous modern ferries are those which carry people and goods across the Straits of Mackinac to the car-free Mackinac Island but before the Mackinac Bridge was built, large numbers of ferries carried people and cars between the two peninsulas. Other ferries continue to provide transportation to small islands and across the Detroit River to Canada. Ferries once provided transport to island parks for city dwellers. The state's only national park, Isle Royale cannot be reached by road and is normally accessed by ferry. The largest ferries in Michigan are the car ferries which cross Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. One of these, the SS Badger is one of the last remaining coal steamers on the Great Lakes and serves as a section of US Highway 10 (US 10). The Badger is also the largest ferry in Michigan, capable of carrying 600 passengers and 180 autos.
The Melissa Ann is a 77-foot (23 m), 172 passenger passenger-only ferry owned by Four Seasons Marine and operated by Kitsap Transit as part of the Kitsap Fast Ferries fleet.
Kitsap Fast Ferries is a passenger ferry service operating between Seattle and Kitsap County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is funded and operated by Kitsap Transit and began service in July 2017, with a single boat traveling between Seattle and Bremerton. A second route, from Seattle to Kingston, launched in November 2018, and a third route serving Seattle and Southworth began operating in March 2021. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 1,091,400, or about 40,800 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.
USS Pima County (LST-1081) was an LST-542-class tank landing ship of the United States Navy. Built by the American Bridge Company in Ambridge, Pennsylvania from 13 November 1944 she was commissioned into the navy on 30 January 1945. LST-1081 saw service as a logistics vessel in the latter stages of the Pacific War but was placed into reserve and decommissioned after the war. She was recommissioned in 1950 after the outbreak of the Korean War and served with the Atlantic Fleet, including a deployment in the Mediterranean Sea during which she was renamed USS Pima County. She returned to the reserve in 1956 and was decommissioned on 12 December of that year.
