It’s the site of an abandoned hospital.
The eerie North Brother Island, described by some as the last unknown place in New York City, is located in the East River and was developed in 1885 when Riverside Hospital moved to the island.
A building on North Brother Island sits in the East River and has been abandoned for the last 48 years. Riverdale Hospital was located on the Island and was used to treat patients of highly contagious diseases; its most notorious patient being Typhoid Mary. (Image source: Daniel Watt)
The hospital specialized in treating patients with Smallpox and allowed officials to isolate infected individuals from the public.
Over time, it was used to treat patients with other quarantinable diseases.
Later, it served as a place to accommodate returning World War II veterans and the center eventually opened to provide treatment for drug addicts.
A decade later, in 1963, it was ultimately closed and abandoned.
Since, the island’s facilities have been decommissioned and the grounds are closed to the public.
The island now serves as a bird sanctuary. Photographs reveal the former hospital and facilities crumbling and overrun by plants.
City council member Mark Levine recently visited the island, telling the Gothamist it's filled with "so much history" like "how we've dealt with epidemics."
"To visit there was an experience unlike any other that I've had," Levine he said.
"These ruins of the former hospital that have been overrun by nature," he continued to the Gothamist. "The experience of being completely isolated in this forest with these half decayed beautiful buildings as you faintly hear in the background the sounds of the city."
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