U Thant Island

U Thant Island ; (Belmont Island)
	U Thant Island in March 2015
Waters	East River
Geographical location	40 ° 44 '47.8 " N , 73 ° 57' 51.8" W Coordinates: 40 ° 44 '47.8 " N , 73 ° 57' 51.8" W.
length	60 m
width	30 m
surface	0.18 ha
Residents	uninhabited

U Thant Island , officially called Belmont Island , is an artificial island about 60 meters long and 30 meters wide in the East River in Manhattan , New York City in the US state of New York . The island was created in the 1890s from excavated material that was brought to light when the two tubes of the Steinway Tunnel were built.

history

As in the 1890s by substantial funding by William Steinway and August Belmont Jr. , the two tubes of the Steinway tunnels were under the East River built to Manhattan with Steinway working class neighborhood in Astoria to connect the construction were shafts used to the excavated material (mainly Granite ) from the tunnel. This excavated granite was heaped up at one point in the East River and was named Man-o'-War Reef at the time . Over time, it became a small island. While Steinway, after whom the tunnel was subsequently named, died before the construction work was finished, the project was continued by the other financier, August Belmont junior, and the work was completed in 1907. Then the small island was officially named Belmont Island . The buildings next to the island and the shaft were abandoned after the construction work was completed.

In 1977 a group called The Peace Meditation at the United Nations , made up of supporters of Guru Chinmoy and staff from the United Nations Headquarters , which is about 300 meters away on the coast, took care of the island. They leased the island from New York State, landscaped it and named it in honor of the late 1974 Burmese politician, from 1961 to 1971 the United Nations Secretary-General and friend Chinmoy U Thant henceforth U Thant Iceland . This unofficial name is largely more common to this day than the official name Belmont Island . A skeletal metal arch erected by the Buddhist group, the so-called Oneness Arch of U Thant , with various souvenirs of U Thant collapsed in the first half of the 2010s and was not rebuilt afterwards.

In 1999 the New York Times held an international competition to design a time capsule in order to preserve artifacts for the next millennium. A suggestion from Caples Jefferson Architects was to build a granite obelisk on U Thant Island that would gradually dissolve and only leave the time capsule by the end of the 30th century.

During the 2004 Republican National Convention , local artist and filmmaker Duke Riley , who had previously visited various deserted islands in the area in and around New York City, and a friend rowed to the island under cover of darkness, proclaiming it sovereign Nation and hoisted a 21-foot-long triangular flag with the image of two electric eels on the navigation tower with the number 17 . On their return to shore in daylight, the two were met by a US Coast Guard boat , but not arrested. The venture was videotaped by Riley and is titled Belmont Island (SMEACC) .

Depending on the water level, sometimes only a few square meters of the island protrude from the water. Today the island has only a modest vegetation; For the most part there are some boulders on it, although some remains of the structures from the time of the tunnel construction are still visible. Furthermore, there are often various birds that use the island as nesting sites. At a higher point on the island's navigation tower there is a green sign with the number of the tower (17). At the foot of the metal frame standing on a concrete base is still the tin sign, which was once attached in memory of U Thant, with the inscription U Thant Island and accompanying text.

For a long time, the island was only allowed to be entered by the Harbor Police , the US Coast Guard and once or twice a year by supporters of Sri Chinmoy, who maintained the island until the mid-1990s. Tourists, fishermen, picnickers, Protestants and other people were brought back to the mainland by the coast guard when they entered the island. Even today, public access to unauthorized persons is still prohibited. Today, the island, located a little south of Roosevelt Island , is looked after by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation , is now used as a nature reserve for migratory birds and includes a small colony of shags . The reefs around the island are now a popular fishing spot for rock bass .

Picture gallery

U Thant Island in July 2005
U Thant Island in front of the UN headquarters ; in the background u. a. the Chrysler Building (July 2009)
U Thant Island in September 2015
The small island; pictured in the New-York Tribune on October 14, 1906.