North Brother Island
| North Brother Island | ||
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| Waters | East River | |
| Geographical location | 40 ° 48 '2 " N , 73 ° 53' 55" W | |
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| length | 405 m | |
| width | 255 m | |
| surface | 5.3 ha | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
 the lighthouse island |
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North Brother Island is a small uninhabited island in the metropolitan area of New York .
Geographical location
The island is located in the East River , between the Bronx and Rikers Island . The somewhat smaller South Brother Island is close by . The two islands together have an area of 81,423 square meters (8.14 hectares ). Of this, 2.8 hectares are on South Brother Island and around 5.3 hectares on North Brother Island.
history
The island was uninhabited until the Riverside Hospital , a quarantine hospital, was housed there in 1885 . A famous patient was Mary Mallon ("Typhoid Mary").
In 1904, North Brother Island was the scene of the General Slocum disaster. 1,021 people were killed in the accident, mainly women and their children. To date, it is the largest civil shipping disaster in the United States.
After the Second World War , the island was used for a housing project for veterans, and later for a drug rehab program.
The island is currently uninhabited and not open to the public. The dilapidated buildings are overgrown. The sheltered location favors a large colony of night herons .
Trivia
The History Channel filmed an episode of Future Without People on the island to illustrate what a world would look like after civilization.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Timothy Williams: City Claims Final Private Island in East River , New York Times . November 20, 2007. Retrieved May 26, 2008. "South Brother Island, seven acres of dense forest, bittersweet vines, flocks of wild birds and little else, is a bacon in the East River - and a glimpse of what the rest of the city might have looked like thousands of years ago. "
Web links
- Ruins on New York's abandoned island reclaimed by nature , BBC documentary (English, May 22, 2014)