North Brother Island is a small island located in New York City's East River between the mainland Bronx and Rikers Island. North Brother Island was once the site of the Riverside Hospital for quarantinable diseases but is now uninhabited. The island had long been privately owned, but were purchased by the federal government in 2007 with some funding from The Trust for Public Land and others; North Brother Island along with South Brother Island, were given to the City. They were then designated as sanctuaries for water birds.[1]
Coverage[]
North Brother Island is featured in Armed & Defenseless, where 45 years after people have let man's footprint on Earth to slowly disappearing and shows an example that is already happening in less than a mile off the coast of New York City, one of the biggest cities in the world. Steven S. Ross, along with Michael Feller and Andy Bernick, explores the island and explains the history of it and the progress of nature.
History[]
Arrival[]
An old aerial photo of North Brother Island.
The first buildings were constructed in the 1880s, serving many purposes over the years including housing returning World War II veterans, quarantining victims of infectious disease, and later treating drug addicts. The former residents all left an unusual mark on the island's life after people. Steven S. Ross stated that the building behind him is an infectious disease hospital in 1943 where it was actually used until 1964 and by that point, the place he currently standing on was a broad, well-maintained boulevard that cut through the island that once the island's main street. He shows a hydrant that is right in front of the hospital and stood right on the curb at the edge of the street, he then reveals that the plant life underneath are the pavement where there about an inch of soil that took 45 years to accumulate.
Riverside Hospital[]
Typhoid Mary, a patient in Riverside Hospital.
The Riverside Hospital was commissioned in 1881 and demolished in the mid 20th century, only a handful of its original buildings remain, In 1907, New York quarantined its most notorious carrier of an infectious disease known as Typhoid Mary. Typhoid fever was a deadly disease usually carried by unclear water, and while massive outbreaks were becoming uncommon as sanitation improved, Typhoid Mary was a special threat to New York. Real name Mary Mallon, she was a cook and a healthy carrier. She spread the disease, but never got sick herself and was officially blamed for infecting 53 people though many believed it is up to 1,400 cases in all. She was confined to North Brother Island on two different occasions with the first in 1907. She eventually died on the island in 1938.
Exploration[]
Since North Brother Island is isolated from the city by water, it was entirely dependent on boats to keep its population supplied with everything from food to fuel. Steven S. Ross shows a coal dock that served the island until around 1960 and explains that it was the unloading point for barges that bring coal into the island. He shows that most of the plants are mission with giant iron bolts inside of the timber and shows the concrete platform that is suspended over the waterway and over the beach with wooden piers. He continues that the concrete has actually sunk and cracked after the pilings started to deteriorate.
The abandoned Riverside Hospital.
Life was easy in the place where critically ill people hoped for cures from diseases that terrified the outside world, however structures that sheltered them are in critical condition with the walls of the oldest brick buildings are prying apart with old coal boilers rusting away from moisture while the rest of the hospital succumbs to the unchecked growth of insidious plant life. Michael Feller is at the entrance to the hospital and explains that plants start to grow that had brought in the island. Invasive vines like kudzu, honeysuckle, and Asiatic bittersweet have taken over the island, giving water birds a new home. Andy Bernick explains that the island represents critical nesting habitat where types of birds don't nest anywhere and require certain amount of protection and distance from predators making North Brother Island one of the few patches in New York state where birds able to nest. After diseases like TB and typhoid were well contained, it became a sanitarium for people who needed a respite from their difficult lives and before its abandoned, open lawns and well-tended grounds surround the buildings, but after 45 years of neglect, the entire hospital is slowly being buried. Michael Feller shows a tennis courts where 40 years worth of plant succession, naturalizing, and soil accumulation have taken over it with asphalt former surface still remain. A later of soil covers the old tennis court where battle-hardened veterans once tried to forget the horrors of war, and nature attacked the asphalt. Michael Feller shows a Norway maple that grows around the post that held the tennis net. He explains the seed was dropped in a crack around 1964 and growing for 44 years. The island's vines is reaching inside the buildings. Michael Feller shows one of Riverside Hospital's large general wards that was originally built to house tuberculosis patients but was never used. He continues that the only thing alive are porcelain berry which grown up from the ground up to the 4th floor through the 4th floor window. He explains that porcelain berry is recorded to grow as much as a foot a day.
The graffiti stating "Help me, I'm being held here against my will."
Drug addicts were treated in the island's newest buildings during the 1950s and 60s, with bizarre artwork hints at their tragic plight. Steven S. Ross shows a room where drug addicts kept inside with a screen at the window that is very thick preventing addicts leaving out of the room. He explains that the room has a very narrow eye slot and very large deadbolt and shows one piece of graffiti that says "Help me, I'm being held here against my will" along with many others detail names, boroughs, places, and streets from all over New York that 50 years after no one remember their names. The breakdown of the building's defenses is most evident are the piles of plaster dust accumulated at the base of most of its walls. Plaster is the softest of the building materials in North Brother Island making it first to go as the broken window exposes the interior to moisture, revealing thick bricks used to isolate each room from the next.
Exploration Conclusion[]
The exploration ends with a statement from Steven S. Ross stating that the building was built for solitude and quiet and when it was originally built, it was meant to be a tuberculosis sanitarium. He continues that time has subverted the building's original purpose and what was originally meant for isolation and solitude is a building that's a part of a cacophony of nature.
Gallery[]
