Roosevelt Island
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- This article refers to the island in New York City. For the National Park in Washington, DC, see: Theodore Roosevelt Island. For the island in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, see: Roosevelt Island, Antarctica.
Roosevelt Island, pop. 9,500, is a long, narrow island in the East River of New York City, lying between the island of Manhattan to its west and Queens on Long Island to its east. It is two miles (3 km) long and 800 feet wide (240 m) at its widest point, with a total area of 147 acres (0.6 km²). Despite its midriver position, Roosevelt Island is under the legal jurisdiction of the Borough of Manhattan and New York County. The land is owned by the city but was leased to the State of New York's Urban Development Corporation for 99 years in 1969. Several of the residences on Roosevelt Island are cooperatives, though at least one is looking to privatize.
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History
Before colonization, the island was called Minnahanock by the aboriginal Indians. In 1637 the Dutch purchased the island and renamed it Varckens Island (Hogs Island). It was named Manning's Island after captain John Manning from 1666 to 1686, Blackwell Island from 1686 to 1921 and Welfare Island from 1921 to 1973, when it was renamed in anticipation of the building of a major memorial monument there for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, meant in part to make it more attractive to potential residents and visitors. The monument was planned as a large three-walled granite room open to the sky and facing the water at the island's southern tip, with the Four Freedoms inscribed on one wall. Due in large part to the untimely death of the architect, the memorial was never built, and despite the construction of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in the nation's capital, some still hope to complete the project, though now there are alternate proposals for a large public plaza at the site.
The island was for many years devoted to hospitals and asylums. Welfare Penitentiary was closed in 1935.
In recent years the island has been developed as a residential community with a number of high-rise apartment buildings; the long-term care facilities remain at both the northern (Coler Hospital) and southern (Goldwater Hospital) ends of the island. Many foreign diplomats also live on the island, due to its close proximity to United Nations headquarters on the East Side of Manhattan.
Roosevelt Island is sometimes referred to as "The Little Apple", a joking reference to New York City's nickname as the "Big Apple".
Transportation
Roosevelt Island, although under the Queensboro Bridge, is not directly acessible from the bridge itself.
The Template:NYCS F train has a stop of the same name sake on Main Street.
The Roosevelt Island Tramway serves Midtown Manhattan and Roosevelt Island.
When first developed as a residential community in the early 1970s, Roosevelt Island was not intended to support automobile traffic. Today automobile traffic is common, though much of the island remains a car-free area. A bridge leads from Astoria to the Island.
RIOC operates on-island shuttle bus service from apartment buildings to the subway and tramway. The buses are highly visible due to thier bright red livery.
MTA Bus also operates the Q102 bus route between Astoria and Roosevelt Island.
Notable residents and visitors
Prisoners on Blackwells and Welfare Island
- Boss Tweed - served one year on corruption-related charges
- Emma Goldman - several times, for activities in support of anarchism, birth control and against the draft in World War I
- Mae West - served eight days on public obscenity charges for her play Sex
Visitors who exposed conditions on Blackwells Island
- Nellie Bly - went undercover as a patient in the Women's Lunatic Asylum
- Charles Dickens - described conditions at the "Octagon," an asylum for the mentally ill then located on the northern portion of the island, in his American Notes (1842)
Modern residents of Roosevelt Island
External links
- An Overview of Roosevelt Island (http://newmedia.jrn.columbia.edu/2003/islands/zone4/roosevelthistory.html)
- Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (http://www.rioc.com/)fr:Roosevelt Island