FUTURE PROJECTS AN UPDATE TO NORTH BROTHER ISLAND NY

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Entry to the North Brother Island

location map

Since 1963 the North Brother Island located between Queens and the Bronx has shut it's doors to the public. A previous detailed review that's on the projects tab, focused at the history of the Island along with future projects and plans to reopen despite the horrific events that took place until closed down by corruption, inhability. The Island with shut doors and visitors only by environmental organizations, hidden by trees and almost collapsed structures could hardly attract the eye of the locals which barely know the story of it.

On a recent trip not on the Island but off the coast in the Bronx and specific on 149 East Street till 1 Oak Point Avenue where North Brother Island sites in the Middle of the East River and closer to the Bronx, a short walking distance from the subway and the 6 train gets you to 1 Oak  Point Avenue and from there with a ferry for 5-10 minutes 

View from the coast 1

distance until to reach final destination makes the Island easy to get there. The 149 East Street and the surrounding neighborhood is underdeveloped and populated by middle to lower class family's, industrial factories, warehouses and auto repair shops behind and under  the massive Bruckner Expressway. The locals are friendly and very welcome. On my way i found an old Italian place where i seat and got a roll with sausage, onions and peppers, tasteful indeed. I asked the owner of the place information about the Island and he looked at me strange obviously he had no idea about it. Then i walked more to the auto repair shops and other retailers asking where i can rent a boat to get me to the Island, nobody knew about the Island or how to get there. When finally reached 1 Oak Point
  Avenue behind the Coca

View from the coast 2

Cola factory i was amused at first facing the tragedy took place long ago and simultaneously secluded the island is. The east side of the north felt more friendly than i was expecting and looks very beautiful from the outside, somehow ignoring the crimes and accidents. Maybe when i get closer it will be persuasive enough to describe a tragedy or chain of events in a period of depression and war. Arte prospective the Island attempt in space and time to host a manifest of ideas through the time capsule ontogeny otherwise "Modern Period" till augment. This implication involves periodical fractures in structures on ruins and or amalgamate with nature and off surrounding. Infinite and destructive in forms or shapes the Island setting distinctive mold avoiding exaggeration but rather a step towards reality?, distancing itself from complex motive or feel encompass by. 

My sojourn in Bronx was a first good contact with mixed feelings and i am set for the next on board experience to the Island anxious to find out more. Stay tuned!.

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THE ABANDONED NORTH BROTHER ISLAND

Photo: Harry Hambourg

The North Brother Island is located between the Bronx and Rikers Island. Uninhabitable until (1885), when Riverside Hospital moved from Blackwell's Island as we know today Roosevelt Island, used to isolate and treat quarantinable diseases and heroin addicts, some patients complained that there were there with out there will including the infamous Mary Mallon nicknamed Typhoid Mary. During the Second World War the hospital facilitate army personnel. Tragedy strikes again when passenger steamboat PS General Slocum caught fire and sank. 

Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary) was accused of infecting 51 people were 3 of them died, Mary was an immigrant cook from Ireland and through out her life has changed several jobs due to health concerns infecting people with the disease. She refused to collaborate with health services demanding that she was diseased free. Typhoid Mary served in the summer time wealthy

Mary Mallon

families in Long Island City and Charles Henry Warren a wealthy banker were 6 of 11 members got sick and she moved along to other families. By that time she worked as a mate ironing and cleaning mentions that was the lowest woman perception in working environment. Doctors found out that her body was a cell of typhoid bacteria after her arrest and transfer to Riverside Hospital. The typhoid disease had an outbreak in NYC by 1907-1910 coming from the poorest neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side were health conditions reached ultimate low, clean water, clean streets and disease free survival was not existed. Therefore the city decided to create the Sanitation Department in 1895 and hired street cleaners to clean the streets. One family hired a researcher George Soper to investigate on typhoid and Mary Mallon. Mary still remains an enigmatic figure. Click and read "Mary in her own words letter".

PS General Slocum 1981-1904, was a passenger steamboat were sank in the East River in NYC after caught fire at North Brother Island just off the Bronx. The boat was build by Devine Burtis, Jr., in Brooklyn boat builder. Her keel was 235 feet (72m) long the haul

PS General Slocum

was 37.5 feet (11.4m) wide constructed of white oak and yellow pine. The Slocum measured 1,284 tons gross. Powered by a single-cylinder, surface considering vertical beam stream engine.  On board were about 1400 people, 321 survived five of the crew members died and the captain lost sight in one eyed blamed on fire. Several bodies washed ashore at the North Brother Island. Many incidents have been reported in time of Slocum operations, including a collision  in 1898 near the Battery Park and in 1901 a riot started by 900 intoxicated Paterson anarchists. The boat safety was merely updated and the crew barely experienced in case of an emergency. The lifeboats where tided up and inaccessible, life jackets on their children and tossed them into water, only to watch them sank instead of floating. Slocum disaster was the worst in the history of New York City as far on human casualties after the September, 9-11 attacks. 

Remarkable North Brother Island took place in extraordinary events merely perceiving it's existence as a legitimate way to treat and host living standards in a period other hygienic homogeneity troubled free era beginning of 19th century, since closed right after the death of Mary Mallon for corruption, by the management of Riverside Hospital. The North Brother Island will be re-open to public by 2016; after clean up and it's natural habitat protection requirements issued by NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.