![]() The bridge lasted until 1821, when it was destroyed in a storm. ![]() The wooden drawbridge connected the island with Manhattan at 114th Street, and was paid for by Bartholomew Ward and Philip Milledolar. Nineteenth century The New York House of Refuge youth detention center in 1855.Īlthough a small population had lived on Wards since as early as the 17th century, the Ward brothers developed the island more heavily by building a cotton mill and in 1807 building the first bridge to cross the East River. In November 1784, Jonathan Randell (or Randel) bought Randalls Island, while Jaspar Ward and Bartholomew Ward, sons of judge Stephen Ward, bought Wards. He resigned his commission and returned to England in 1778, but retained ownership of the island until the British evacuated the city in 1783 and it was confiscated.īoth islands gained their current names from new owners after the war. Montresor's house there was burned in 1777. In 1776, the British used Randalls Island to launch amphibious attacks on Manhattan. ![]() During the Revolutionary War, both islands hosted military posts for the British. He renamed it Montresor's Island and lived on it with his wife until the Revolutionary War forced him to deploy. At times Randalls was known as "Buchanan's Island" and "Great Barn Island", both of which were likely corruptions of Great Barent Island.Ĭaptain John Montresor, an engineer with the British army, purchased Randalls Island in 1772. Both islands' names changed several times. The island's first European names were Great Barent Island (Wards) and Little Barent Island (Randalls) after a Danish cowherd named Barent Jansen Blom. The islands were acquired by Wouter Van Twiller, Director General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, in July 1637. The Native American Lenape people called Wards Island Tenkenas, which translates to "wild lands" or "uninhabited place", whereas Randalls Island was called Minnehanonck. Randalls Island is the site of three music festivals: Governors Ball Music Festival, Panorama Music Festival, and Electric Zoo Festival.ĭetail of an 1896 map of Long Island City from the Greater Astoria Historical Society Randalls and Wards Islands are at the top. The island can be reached by the Triborough Bridge the Wards Island Bridge, which serves pedestrians and bicyclists and links the island to East Harlem in Manhattan or by the Randalls Island Connector, a pedestrian and cycling bridge crossing the Bronx Kill and connecting to the Port Morris neighborhood of the Bronx. The island is crossed by the Triborough and Hell Gate bridges. Outside of these institutions and buildings, there is no residential housing for the general public on the island. Today it is home to several public facilities, including a psychiatric hospital known as the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, a drug and alcohol treatment facility named Odyssey House, a daycare, two state police stations, the FDNY fire academy, a DEP wastewater treatment plant, Icahn Stadium, HELP Clarke Thomas Mens Homeless Shelter, Keener Employment Homeless Men's Shelter, Schwartz Homeless Men's Shelter, HELP USA Supportive Employment Center, and an urban farm. The island also has a history of being used for asylums, hospitals, and cemeteries. The park offers 91 athletic fields, a driving range, greenways, playgrounds and picnic grounds. Most of the island is parkland, spanning a total of 432.69 acres (175.10 ha), and managed by Randall's Island Park Alliance. ![]() The island had a population of 1,648 living on 2.09 square kilometers (520 acres) in 2010. A third, smaller island, Sunken Meadow Island, was located east of Randalls Island and was connected to it in 1955. The channel between them, Little Hell Gate, was infilled by the early 1960s. The two islands were formerly separated, with Randalls Island to the north of Wards Island. Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County ( borough of Manhattan), New York City, separated from Manhattan Island by the Harlem River, from Queens by the East River and Hell Gate, and from the Bronx by the Bronx Kill.
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