Detour to Roosevelt Island

For some reason I'd been wanting to visit Roosevelt Island for awhile--something about it seemed intriguing. Maybe it's the island's storied history--it's the former site of a prison (then known as Blackwell's Island), a smallpox hospital, and a mental hospital, the latter of which has been converted into luxury apartments (I can't imagine living there--too many horrible moments from its past). Or maybe it's the fact that it's a largely ignored (except by its residents, of course) enclave in the middle of Manhattan and Queens.

While we were in Long Island City I suddenly remembered that I'd read about a pedestrian bridge leading from that neighborhood to Roosevelt Island, and it happened to be about three blocks from where we were standing. Which seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.

We stopped for a few minutes to take pictures of the bridge (and each other).

It seems that there's not a whole lot going on on Roosevelt Island though. You can pretty much expect find a nice park, views of other land masses, apartment buildings, a grocery store, and a hospital. I think there's a library too. We only walked to one end of the island so maybe all the cool stuff was in the other half. (I'm not curious enough to want to go back though.)

We walked to Lighthouse Park, located at the northern tip of the island.

I like the flecks of orange and green paint on the lighthouse door.

This man had a lot of fishing poles set up (with more on the other side).

On the way back to the bridge we noticed this sign.

Kids were skateboarding with a makeshift ramp under the bridge entrance.