The Forgotten Island in New York’s East River That Held 200 Years of the City’s Secrets

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There is a narrow strip of land sitting in the middle of New York’s East River — sandwiched between the Upper East Side and Long Island City — that holds two centuries of the city’s most complicated history. Most visitors ride the F train directly beneath it, or glance at the aerial tram from 59th Street without giving it a second thought. Those who do cross over tend to come back again.

Its name is Roosevelt Island. And almost nobody visits it.

An Island With Four Different Names

Roosevelt Island has not always been called Roosevelt Island. For most of its history, it was Blackwell’s Island — named after the farming family that owned it in the seventeenth century. The city of New York purchased it in 1828 and quickly found a use for it: a place to put the people the city didn’t know what to do with.

By the 1850s, the island housed a penitentiary, an almshouse, a workhouse, and a lunatic asylum. The East River served as a natural barrier, keeping its population — prisoners, the mentally ill, the desperately poor — out of sight of respectable Manhattan. It was renamed Welfare Island in 1921.

The final name change came in 1973, as the city began transforming it into a planned residential community. It was renamed after Franklin D. Roosevelt — and a new chapter began for an island that had spent 150 years as New York’s hidden problem.

The Reporter Who Rowed Across the River and Changed American Journalism

In 1887, journalist Nellie Bly convinced a judge that she was mentally ill and had herself committed to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. She spent ten days inside.

What she found was devastating. Patients were doused in ice-cold baths, fed spoiled food, and subjected to routine abuse from staff. Bly documented everything she witnessed in a series of reports for the New York World titled Ten Days in a Mad-House. The resulting scandal led directly to a grand jury investigation and sweeping reforms to the city’s mental health institutions.

Bly is now recognized as one of the greatest reporters in American history. She got her most important story by rowing across the East River to an island most New Yorkers preferred not to think about.

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The Gothic Ruins Most New Yorkers Have Never Seen

At the southern tip of Roosevelt Island stands one of the most extraordinary sights in New York — and almost nobody knows it’s there. The Renwick Ruins are the crumbling shell of a Gothic Revival smallpox hospital built in 1856, designed by James Renwick Jr., the same architect behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

The building treated patients who needed to be isolated from the rest of the city. It was abandoned in the 1950s and left to decay. Today, its stone walls are dramatically lit at night. Vines thread through arched window frames. The structure has the look of something ancient — far older and more European than anything you’d expect to find beside the FDR Drive.

If you’ve ever driven the FDR and spotted a ruined Gothic building on the island to your right, that was it. Up close, with the Manhattan skyline behind you, it’s even more striking.

The Tram That Swings 250 Feet Above the River

Getting to Roosevelt Island is part of the experience. The Roosevelt Island Tramway opened in 1976 as a temporary measure while a subway extension was being built. It was so popular that the city kept it running permanently. For years, it was the only aerial commuter tramway in North America.

The tram departs from a station at 59th Street and Second Avenue on the Upper East Side, climbs 250 feet above the East River, and glides across to the island in about three minutes. The views of the Manhattan skyline from that height are extraordinary. The fare is a standard MetroCard swipe.

Many visitors recognize it from the 2002 film Spider-Man, in which an iconic scene takes place on the very same cars. For the roughly 14,000 people who live on Roosevelt Island, it’s simply the quickest way home.

New York’s transit system hides more than most people realize. The ghost station beneath City Hall is another of the city’s great architectural secrets — visible from the 6 train if you know when to look.

What You’ll Find on the Island Today

Roosevelt Island’s main street is largely car-free — an almost alien concept this close to Midtown. A small red bus runs the length of the island for free. The Octagon — the domed rotunda that once served as the entrance to the lunatic asylum — is now a luxury apartment building. Residents jog past it without a second thought.

At the island’s northern tip stands a lighthouse built in 1872, reportedly by a single convict named John McCarthy, who carried the stone from the prison quarry and left an inscription: “This is the work was done by John McCarthy who built the lighthouse from the bottom to the top.” The lighthouse still stands.

At the southern end, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park opened in 2012. Designed by architect Louis Kahn and completed nearly four decades after his death, it’s one of the finest pieces of civic design in New York — formal, quiet, and almost always uncrowded.

The waterfront promenade along both shores offers some of the best views of the Manhattan skyline in the city. On a clear evening, with the Queensboro Bridge overhead and the sun setting over Midtown, there’s nowhere in New York quite like it.

New York hides extraordinary things in plain sight. If you’re curious about the city’s most overlooked borough, there’s a similar story waiting there too.

Frequently Asked Questions About Roosevelt Island

How do you get to Roosevelt Island from Manhattan?

The Roosevelt Island Tramway departs from 59th Street and Second Avenue on the Upper East Side and takes about three minutes. You can also take the F subway train to the Roosevelt Island station. Both accept standard MTA fare payment.

Is Roosevelt Island worth visiting in New York?

Yes — it’s one of the most unusual and undervisited spots in the city. The Renwick Ruins, the Four Freedoms Park, the aerial tramway, and the waterfront promenade make for a genuinely rewarding half-day trip, and it costs little more than a MetroCard swipe to get there.

What is the best time to visit Roosevelt Island in New York?

Late afternoon on a clear day offers the most dramatic views of the Manhattan skyline. The island is quieter on weekdays, and the Renwick Ruins are beautifully lit after dark on weekend evenings.

How long does it take to walk around Roosevelt Island?

The island is about two miles long and can be walked comfortably in 90 minutes. Factor in time at the Four Freedoms Park and the Renwick Ruins, and a full visit runs two to three hours.

New York City has spent two centuries hiding its most remarkable places in plain sight. Roosevelt Island has been sitting in the East River the whole time — quiet, undervisited, and full of stories. Cross over sometime. The city looks completely different from the middle of the river.

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