A Secret New York Island That You Can Never Visit

[Music] all right mystery lovers and people who don't like to be kept out of the loop here is the top secret New York island that you can never visit hey what's up with that now when most people think about islands in New York Manhattan Staten Long Island Ellis or Liberty Island usually come to mind but New York City has tons more a total of about 40 islands in fact and among those there's one that's so confidential that you can't even visit it mystery worth solving you think well get comfy because we're about to take a trip to the hush hush New York island known as haunt you'll be surprised by its interesting history but before we get into all the juicy details take this moment to subscribe to our Channel and if you want to be the first to see all the fun and informative videos coming out daily on the bright side of life be sure to ring the notification bell so that you don't miss a thing bouton island is a teeny tiny 100 by 200 foot artificial island located off the coast of Manhattan its history goes way back to the 1890s when William Steinway a businessman civic leader and yes part of the Steinway piano family decided to construct - trolley tunnels under the East River in order to connect Manhattan to Queens where his company Steinway village was located all of the waste coming out of this construction process started building up on the underwater reef until it emerged to the surface this mound of rocks turned into none other than etat Island unfortunately William Steinway died before his idea came to life but the project was finished with the help of American financier August Belmont jr. that's why the legal name of this rock mount is Belmont Island the island remained undisturbed and out of the spotlight for decades that is until 1977 when it was adopted by the peace meditation at the United Nations this organization was founded by Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy it included his followers and employees at the UN headquarters in New York they unofficially changed the name of the island to haunt after the former Burmese diplomat and third secretary-general of the UN who was a good friend of chamoy and had died just three years prior to the islands honorary renaming but even though the peace Meditation did so much for Han Thailand making it greener and erecting a memorial oneness arch they were still only allowed to visit it a few times a year fast forward 27 years and this little at all took the spotlight yet again it was during the 2004 Republican National Convention when local artist and filmmaker Duke Reilly rode a boat out to the forbidden place Riley had previously traveled to a couple of other abandoned islands within the New York City area but this time he declared that this one who taught a sovereign nation he even hoisted a 21-foot flag on itas navigation tower all this happened in the middle of the night but it still wasn't long before the Coast Guard apprehended the trespasser they set him free a bit later though I mean no harm done right and that was the last colorful page in the history of atad Island it's now turned into a protected sanctuary for migrating birds including a small colony of beautiful double-crested cormorant the Steinway tunnel you know the building project that created the tiny landmass in the first place is a really important part of the New York City subway even today yeah of course nobody is allowed to visit the seemingly insignificant yet oh so fascinating Bhutan Island to this day so there but you know that's not all New York has another closed-off island that's boozing with mystery North Brother Island just like you Todd is currently designated as a bird sanctuary but its history is a lot darker the island was abandoned up to 1885 when it became the new location for Riverside Hass Bittle Riverside was at first an isolated Hospital for smallpox patients but over time expanded and started accepting sufferers of other types of highly contagious and deadly diseases like tuberculosis and typhoid fever after the Second World War the hospital became sort of a dormitory for veterans enrolled in New York colleges once the post-war housing shortage led up Riverside was abandoned yet again in the 1950s it was reopened as a drug treatment center for teen addicts but that didn't stick long either and the question of what to do with the island just kept popping up for some reason the state of New York decided to make this island off-limits to the general public some even believe that North Brother Island may be haunted because of its complicated and dark history perhaps we'll never really know the truth now if we venture out across the globe we'll find even more places that are for one reason or another off-limits for visitors one prime example is snake island which is located about ninety miles off the coast of South Palo as to why this place is forbidden for travel well the name says it all snake island is home to between 2,000 and 4,000 venomous snakes just imagine coming across about five snakes for every 10 square feet oh boy if that's not what nightmares are made of then I don't know what is the only people who are allowed to visit the island from time to time our scientists and researchers given that they have plenty of experience when it comes to snakes but for regular folks like you and me this journey would probably be a one-way ticket and that's because the golden lancehead lives there just one bite from this Viper can kill a person within an hour yeah this place won't be opening its doors to visitors anytime soon there are other even more mysterious places out there like Heard Island ever heard of Rhode Island you can find it in the middle of the ocean between Australia and Antarctica well it's hard to get there anyway the Australian government decided not to take any chances and banned anyone from traveling there so what's with all the secrecy the reasoning is way more beautiful than you think Hurd Island is home to animals that are totally unique to this area and the Australian government wants them to live in peace without human intervention plus there are two active volcanoes on the island along with the tallest mountain in Australia so what's your opinion on this is it better to protect such unique places from people or to open them up for visitation and tourism sound off in the comments below but that's still not the only place that authorities want to protect for ecological reasons it's also why Iceland's Surtsey Island is cut off from visitors Surtsey Island was formed from a huge volcanic eruption that took place back in 1963 the eruption lasted for four whole years allowing the island to grow to a size of one square mile since then it's continued to be a place of interest for volcanologists botanists and biologists alike these scientists want to study how plants and animals colonize this entirely new land so the decision to keep Surtsey Island as far from people as possible came almost instantly everybody understood that humans can easily destroy the islands one-of-a-kind ecosystem and this one in a lifetime chance to study nature so uniquely would be lost forever new species simply won't be able to grow if people were to live there for that reason only a selected and let's be honest lucky few are allowed to step on the island and see its beauty for themselves and this approach seems to be working out perfectly UNESCO declared Surtsey Island a world heritage site not too long ago so who knows maybe scientists will stumble across some seriously revolutionary discoveries there it's just a bummer that we won't be able to see a place so different from anything we've ever known but hey they're probably right we just goof it up so if you could visit only one of these places which one would you choose tell us in the comment section below don't forget to hit the like button and share this video with your friends if you found it interesting and for more Brightside in your life just 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Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 1,602,806

Rating: 4.4761076 out of 5

Keywords: secret islands, closed-off islands, mysterious places, U Thant Island, North Brother Island, Snake Island, Heard Island, Surtsey Island, NYC, New York Island, coast of Manhattan, Riverside Hospital, venomous snakes

Id: a2s8G0WH4iM

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 30 2018