Island of the Dead: New York City’s Hart Island

Panorama showing Hart Island (lower right) and City Island (left) in 2010. The large land mass at the top of the picture is the borough of the Bronx (Photo credit: wikipedia.org)

Unless you are a prisoner, you won’t have access to this island, at least for now. Hart Island is the story of what happens when an indigent or homeless New York City resident dies. This island has been used as the City’s potter’s field since 1869. Its grave diggers are the prisoners of Rikers Island.

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• A short video narrated by a man who died of AIDS: Hart Island, An American Cemetery
• The Hart Island Project: Hart Island, New York City