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Remembering Hog Island
By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 20, 2009
Modified Oct 20, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 20, 2009
Modified Oct 20, 2009
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While Hog Island used to be the family vacation spot for Tammany Hall politicians, after surfacing off the coast of the Rockaways in the mid-1800s, it was no match for Mother Nature. Ephemeral NY revisits the old destination spot, which "featured the usual late-19th century bathing facilities, pavilions, restaurants, and regular ferries," noting how by the late 1800s the sea swallowed it back up, whole!
Is Rockaway next? The question was raised a few years ago, when many speculated that if another hurricane were to hit, like the one that took out Hog Island, then the damages would be enormous. In that same article, the 1893 hurricane and Hog Island story is told... which is really rather terrifyingly amazing. Read about how the hurricane put Canal Street underwater and tore trees up in Central Park, after the jump.
"On the night of August 23, 1893, a terrifying Category 2 hurricane did strike New York City. It hit land in the marsh that is JFK Airport today and began the erosion of the low-lying resort... All six front-page columns of the August 25, 1893, New York Times were dedicated to the 'unexampled fury' of the 'West Indian monster.'
Everything below Canal Street was under water. In Central Park, hundreds of trees were uprooted...The brand-new Metropolitan Life building on Madison Avenue was severely damaged when a heavy-iron fence was torn away by the wind, plunging 10 stories and crashing through a stained-glass dome.
A 30-foot storm surge swept across southern Brooklyn and Queens, destroying virtually every man-made structure in its path. In Brooklyn, at Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues, the water in the street was up to a man's waist,' and residents used ladders to get in and out of their houses. Most of the boats moored at the Williamsburg Yacht Club were 'sunk, driven ashore or demolished.' The East River rose 'until it swept over the sea wall in the Astoria district and submerged the Boulevard.' At Coney Island, 30-foot waves swept 200 yards inland, destroying nearly every man-made structure in its path and wrecking the elevated railroad."
Tagged
history
Hog Island
hurricane
island
rockaways
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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