New York’s ‘Forbidden Island’ Is Full of Death and Disease

When people used to contract highly contagious diseases one thing that would happen in major cities would be they would isolate them. That is exactly the story with North Brother Island in New York, and you're not allowed to go there.

If you've ever been on a boat tour around the state of New York you know there are a lot of small islands up and down the Hudson river and in the various bodies of water we have throughout Upstate New York. New York City is no exception and is home to some pretty famous islands. Ellis, Liberty, and Staten just to name a few. Even Manhattan is an island.

Did you know that there are islands in and around that area that are forbidden? Yes, as in you're not allowed to be there. That's the case with this particular island that used to be where many sick patients would be taken.

North Brother Island

North Brother Island is one of two small islands that sit in the East River and is near the Bronx. This island was used as a hospital to quarantine people with highly contagious diseases. The Riverside hospital was built there in the 1880s and it's where they would send folks who had things like typhoid fever and tuberculosis back in the day. It was a well known place i the early 1900s when the polio epidemic broke out. You can imagine there must be quite a few bodies buried around that island as those diseases took the lives of so many.

It also happens to be the site of a ship wreck where over 1,000 people died from a fire on board the General Slocum steamship, or drowned as a result of the wreck.

For twenty years this island was also home to the actual Typhoid Mary, who lived there until she died in 1938.

Read More: 1 Million People Buried on New York's Island of the Dead

The island has served many other purposes over the years including being a place where WWII veterans were treated for various injuries. It now sits abandoned, looking like a post apocalyptic world. It is a bird sanctuary, and is owned by the federal government. It is a protected area and NOT open to the public.

Though, that hasn't stopped urban explorers from venturing to this place.

What about South Brother Island? That is also a bird sanctuary, but it was the site of New York City's first garbage dump. We're sure it smells amazing.