*i know we lost the other two threads about south island and mid island,

i actually saved most of them in a word file so i'll try to put them back up.

 

in the meantime, part three of roosevelt island,

the odd island with views to kill for smack in the middle of the east river in nyc.

 

 

a new residential development built around a historic structure is called the octagon.

thats right...the octagon. i'm sure chuck norris got an apt there  :police:

 

 

 

 

 

 

the new dome, the tree inside (only pic i was allowed to take), & the stonework (the stone was quarried from the island)

   

 

courtesy of forgotten-ny: "What is today known as "The Octagon" is in fact the crumbling remnant of

Blackwells' Island's first lunatic asylum. first constructed in 1839 and opened in 1841."

 

a rendering from 1880

 

the octagon in 1897 and again in 1999

 

*here is another interesting forgotten-ny historic factoid about roosevelt island:

"By the 1920s and 1930s Blackwell's Island (renamed Welfare Island in 1921) had become a bizarre fiefdom of gangsters serving time

in the neglectful tenure of Joseph McCann, who ran the penitentiary. The mobsters were able to have all the comforts of home smuggled in

and lived like kings amid the deteriorating, squalid conditions surrounding them. The penitentiary was closed and moved to Rikers Island in 1936."

 

 

the old coler branch of coler-goldwater hospital is just north of the octagon

 

 

finally we come to lighthouse park at the northernmost point of the island

 

 

 

the lighthouse was built in 1872 by island prison convicts & is made of gneiss stone quarried from the island.

it was designed by james renwick, same guy who did the smallpox hospital on the southern end.

 

 

 

winding up with some views from around the lighthouse point, these are looking east at queens

 

 

 

northeast is the triboro bridge

 

 

you can see both the triboro and the hellgate bridge here

 

from the north view -- this is the ward's island footbridge, open in the summer only

 

and finally, the requisite manhattan shots to the west

 

 

 

 

if you look closely here all the way down the street --- the building at the end is in new jersey!

 

 

the fdr

 

the older stone section along the fdr

 

 

some apt buildings

 

 

 

 

 

keepin roosevelt spiffy  :wink:

 

*** i hope you have enjoyed exploring roosevelt island, i'll finish up with the ri tram ride ***

 

Very nice, interesting thread.

 

the lighthouse was built in 1872 by island prison convicts & is made of gneiss stone quarried from the island.

 

 

Man, too bad we don't use "slave labor" anymore for the stuff like this.  With all the tax money we spend on prisons and jails these days, it makes you think we could utilize the funds better to do modern day maintainence (i.e. new paint jobs, roofs, landscaping, etc.) or even constrution.  Cool tower and great pictures.

Neat stuff! It's amazing how Roosevelt Island is so near Manhattan and yet retains a unique identity.

Interesting!

Nice.  I damn near live accross from roosevelt island and have never been.  Maybe this spring or summer. 

Nice!