Clancy Tucker's Blog: 19 September 2021 - ABANDONED ISLAND IN THE HEART OF NEW YORK

ABANDONED ISLAND IN

THE HEART OF NEW YORK

G'day folks,

What if I were to tell you that there is an abandoned New York island between Queens and the Bronx?

With a city that is populated with millions of people, how could there be anything, especially an island, that is completely abandoned? The island is called North Brother Island, and one Reddit user came across the island when kayaking from Connecticut to New York. The pictures he took of the abandoned island near NYC are absolutely amazing, and it still blows my mind that this island is unoccupied. Lucky for us, he decided to stop and take a few pictures of this island.

North Brother is located between the Bronx and Queens.

The island was developed in 1885. It was originally used to build a hospital complex. They used the hospital to quarantine patients who had small pox or typhoid fever. In the 1950’s, they changed the hospital into a rehabilitation center for patients who were addicted to drugs.

The entire island has been abandoned since 1963, which makes it even more crazy that it hasn’t been developed into something new, especially with its close proximity to New York City. They did try to sell the island to investors in the 1970’s but there were no buyers. In order to develop the island, they had to take into account the cost of construction, how they would get materials there, the cost of a sewage system, plus the noise from La Guardia Airport.