Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island is one of my very favorite places in the city. It's a little strange, a little out of the way, a little crumbling and so fascinating. Of course it's well known for its sordid former lives as Blackwell's and then Welfare Island—home to the notorious New York City Lunatic Asylum, a penitentiary, a workhouse and various hospitals including the James Renwick-designed Smallpox Hospital (some of which is still standing today as the only ruin with landmark status in the city). The island is only 2 miles long and .15 miles wide, so it's a wonderful place to spend an afternoon walking the perimeter.
The best way to get to the island is to take the tram from 2nd Avenue at East 60th Street. The tram is right up there with the Staten Island Ferry when it comes to whimsical transportation options in the city, and it costs the same as a subway ride (and accepts Metrocards). The F train also stops on the island, and the Roosevelt Island station is one of the deepest underground in the whole subway system.
The west side of the island has incredible views of midtown Manhattan, and a wonderful promenade along the waterfront. I am sad, however, that they demolished the old Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital, which also means that a majority of the southern part of the island is currently fenced off and under construction.
One of my favorite Roosevelt Island fun facts is their Automated Vacuum Collection system (AVAC) for collecting trash, one of only six such systems in the US. According to Atlas Obscura, "this incredible feat of Swedish engineering whisks away the garbage of all 20,000 inhabitants at speeds of up to 60 mph. Trash is sucked out of the homes of Roosevelt Islanders through large pipelines using a complex system of air valves." I also happen to think that their trash cans—featuring the tram and the Queensboro Bridge—are downright adorable.
I know I've mentioned it before, but the Smallpox Hospital ruin is definitely my favorite place on the island, and I try to pay my respects every time I visit. Lighthouse Park, at the northern tip of the island, is finally open after being closed for years due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. This was the first time I was able to actually get close to the (also James Renwick-designed) lighthouse and it's really wonderful. Both structures were designed in the Gothic Revival style, which seems to perfectly align with the island's dark history.
I'm currently reading a book in which one of the characters is imprisoned in the Blackwell's Island lunatic asylum, so I couldn't resist returning to the Octagon—once the main entrance to the asylum, it's now the lobby for a 500-unit apartment complex.
Roosevelt Island has a strange vibe that is hard to explain, and just kind of needs to be experienced in person. It feels a little bit utopian and a little bit dystopian with its sparsely populated Main Street of small-town USA essentials—a sweet shop, library, grocery, nail salon, post office and daycare—all housed in non-descript, vaguely Brutalist concrete structures. Of course this—coupled with its nefarious history and proximity to Manhattan—is precisely why I love it so much.
