Between the East coast of Manhattan and the West coast of Queens is Roosevelt Island, a strip of land two miles long and 800 feet wide. You can walk from one side of it to the other in literally five minutes. It’s considered part of Manhattan, so the rents are high despite there being exactly one subway stop on the island and no actual way to get there from Manhattan by car. But the way you do get there is glorious. Before you actually get there, though–at least if you’re Kamran and me–you have to make a couple of stops.
We started at Kamran’s neighborhood CoCo for bubble teas and took them to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, which is clearly the most rolls-off-the-tongue park in NYC. Birds cooed on the arches above us, the United Nations building beckoned from across the street, and a heavily Photoshopped sky loomed darkly over Jesus.
We walked along the river in the park below Beekman Place and stared across the East River to Roosevelt Island, which has this creepy old shell of a building on one end that’s always lit up at night, making it even creepier:
On the way, we’d stopped at Choux Factory for cream puffs that aren’t nearly as huge and gushing as the ones at Schmidt’s in Ohio but come in more interesting flavors. I barely care about blueberries at all and nearly passed out from the deliciousness of this:
Kamran looks pretty pleased with his boring vanilla, too:
But then we spotted this on our way out of the park and threw them both up:
We walked up to 59th Street and watched the tram to Roosevelt Island come in:
And then we boarded it ourselves and took it across the river. I’ll never get over how it feels to hang so far up in the air, to see taxis look like matchbox cars, and to peek into the windows of twentieth floor apartments like that pervert Superman.
hanging in mid-air over the East River
the many apartment buildings of Roosevelt Island
a sign evidently left over from the days when Roosevelt Island was known as Welfare Island
the Queensboro Bridge, which passes over the island on its way from Manhattan to Queens
Kamran under the bridge with a Queens power plant in the background
seagulls over the Goldwater Hospital
Manhattan through the gates surrounding Southpoint Park
this was a really terrible picture, but then I made it look retro, so now it’s art
the Pepsi sign, one of my favourite parts of Queens, through the grass on Roosevelt Island
the tippy-top of the old Smallpox Hospital
This thing was built in 1856, lasted 100 years, and then fell into disrepair after it was abandoned. (Here‘s a picture of it from the 1870s that’s so romantic it makes me kind of want smallpox.) In 1976, it was designated a New York City Landmark and then . . . left to rot some more. The city is currently working to stabilize the building so that it can be open to the public when the new park on the very Southern tip of the island is finished. It’s lit up at night with green lights that make it look suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper haunted-housey from Manhattan, so it was awesome to finally see the thing up close and realize that it’s just as creepy as we thought.
Kamran, looking pretty wary of the ghosts
and then looking happy
and then looking like he really wishes I’d stop so we could eat the Milky Way we brought with us
After walking all over the Southern tip, which is really just a couple thousand feet long, we got back on the tram and rode into 59th Street again:
looking North up 1st Avenue
a, um, rather specialized store on 60th Street
Kamran looking sad, because Sprinkles was closed
purdy archytecture
Aaaaaaaaaaaand then we went home.
The End.
