Quote:
Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti
LONG ISLAND, NY, has a population of about 7.7 million in its 118 mile length from New York Harbor to its eastern terminus on the Atlantic Ocean at Montauk Point. It is about 28 miles in width from Long Island Sound on the north to the Atlantic Ocean on the south. Its western end includes the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. When Long Island is defined it generally excludes the Queens and Brooklyn sections of New York City. Long Island's political divisions consist of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, 11 towns and 109 villages -- all with their own administrations. The area has had an his torical past from the arrival of the first settlers. Here are interesting facts:
Mastic was the home of William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Long Island's
Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk is the site of the oldest cattle ranch in America, built in 1658, and birthplace of the American cowboy
The Lighthouse at Montauk became NY's first coastal beacon in 1796.
The first radio transmission, by wireless inventor Guglielmo Marconi, was in 1901 on Fire Island Avenue in Babylon
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field, as he embarked on the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
America's first supermarket, King Kullen, started on Long Island in 1930.
Levittown, the first suburbia in the U.S., was built on Long Island in 1947.
The Lunar Module which landed men on the moon in 1969, was built on Long Island by the Grumman Corp.
The only working water mill and windmill in the US are located in the Long Island community of Water Mill.
Richard Nixon's deceased dog Checkers is buried at Long Island's Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery.
When the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, it became the first land -transport route between Long Island and mainland USA. Before that, the only way to travel between the two was by boat.
Long Island was sculpted by melted glaciers, which is why there is a clear difference between the hilly North Shore and the flat South Shore of Long Island.
Long Island is the most populated island in the United States and the
17th most populated island in the world. Interesting fact: Long Island is more populated than the entire country of Jamaica and of Ireland!
If Long Island was its own state, it would rank 12th in terms of population.
Robert Moses creation of a cars-only parkway system created the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects and urban planners across the nation
The North Shore is known for its large mansions, exclusive vacationing, and rich history of its affluent citizens and architecture. The South Shore hosts more entertainment and sports venues together with Atlantic Ocean beaches such as Jones Beach.
The largest industrial park in the US is located on Long Island - The Hauppauge Industrial Park which houses 1,300 companies and employs more than 55,000 people.
Together Nassau and Suffolk counties' nearly 180 fire agencies possess more fire trucks than New York City and Los Angeles County combined.
Suffolk County is the leading agricultural county in New York State based on the wholesale value of its farm products.
More 7-Eleven coffee is purchased on Long Island than in all of California.
George Washington commissioned the Montauk Lighthouse so that the ships coming in from Europe could identify the Atlantic Ocean from the Long Island Sound.
Fire Island got its name in the 17th century when it built fires to identify the coastline to the ships in the ocean.
After World War II, the Japanese were nationalized and able to fly to just 5 places in the country with Idlewild Airport (JFK International) being one, which is why Canon, Nikon and Olympus located their corporate offices there.
The Town of Hempstead with 800,000 residents is the largest township in the country, larger than Boston, San Francisco and Baltimore.
The Nassau and Suffolk population is greater than 20 of 50 states.
Hicksville was the original home of Fudpucker World Airlines, the Worlds only steam powered Airline.
Long Island is the largest college "town" in the US with 175,000 students registered in 21 colleges.
Long Island has the highest level of volunteerism in the world.
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Thank you for posting these interesting facts and bits of trivia, Elke! Although we left Long Islan several years ago, and are happily resettled elsewhere, Long Island will always be my home! My first home was on Long Island, I started kindergarten there and graduated from college on Long Island. You can take the girl out of the Island, but you can't take the Island out of the girl!
With that said, I have a few facts and bits of trivia that I would like to add to your list.
1. Theodore Rooselvet's summer house, Sagamore Hill is in Oyster Bay. His office stands today on the corner of South St. and E.Main St. It's distinctive because of it's Victorian turret.
2. The Revolutionary War was in part, fought on Long Island soil. Raymham Hall, home of the Townshend family, was taken over by British soldiers. Towshend was an American spy.
The occupation of Raynham Hall lead to a doomed romance between Sally Townshend and a British soldier. In Setauket, British soldiers used the Presbyterian church as a stable for their horses.
3. During WWII, a Nazi submarine landed on Long Island.
4. Marylin Monroe and Arthur Miller spent a Summer on Long Island's North Shore. I believe it was North Port.
5. Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla did some of his work in Shorham.
6. Typhoid Mary began her infamous "career" as a spreader of Typhoid, while working as a cook for a family who was summering in Oyster Bay.
7. One of the co-stars of the first "Friday the 13th" is from Oyster Bay. She attended the same elementary school as I did, and graduated several years before I did. She is child actress Adrienne King, who appeared in many
8. The author of "A Separate Peace", (mandatory reading for many HS students) John Knowles, attended Oyster Bay HS. He later graduated from a prep school in New England, upon which "A Separate Peace" was based.
9. The bar code was invented on Long Island, by scientists from Stony Brook University.
10. Stony Brook University was founded in 1957, and initially housed on The Coe Estate in Oyster Bay. before moving to it's current campus. It's original name was "SUNY Long Island".
11. Long Island is a breeding ground for Rock musicians. Everyone knows about Billy Joel, who dropped out of Hicksville High School, but has sometimes said he was from Oyster Bay. (he lives in Center Island now)
Aside from Joel, Long Island gave birth to the artistically acclaimed and highly influential, Velvet Underground. Four members of The Velvet Underground hail from Long Island. Lou Reed (Freeport) Maureen Tucker (Levittown) Sterling Morrison (East Meadow) and Doug Yule (born in Mineola but grew up in Great Neck.
After the break up of the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed went on to have a successful solo career, releasing is well known "Walk on the Wild Side" in the early 70s. He even mentions LI in the song "Candy came from out on The Island, In the back room she was everybody's darling..."
While seminal Punk Rockers, the Ramones, are known to have come out of Forest Hills (geographically Long Island) Johnny Ramone spent part of his childhood in Nassau County. CJ Ramone is from Deer Park.
Here are some more - Twisted Sister (Dee Snyder now lives in Setauket and his children went to school with mine) Dee was raised in Baldwin.
Stray Cat's Brian Setzer is from Massapequa
Blue Oyster Cult (Northport area)
Taking Back Sunday
Pat Benetar
Mountain (founder Leslie West is from Brentwood)
Vanilla Fudge
The Rascals
The Good Rats (Baldwin)
90s proto Punk rockers The Devotchkas, Two Man Advantage and the Loiterers - Suffolk County.
Harry Chapin (Huntington)
Cactus
The Bogmen
Eddie Money (South Shore Nassau)
Joan Jett (lived here for a while on the South Shore)
Joe Satriani (Westbury) guitarist who played with many famous bands including Deep Purple, Crowded House and The Rolling Stones.
Ellie Greenwich (Levittown)
Art Garfunkle
The Scofflaws (Huntington)
And...I am sure I am missing many.
9. If you move from Long Island, you will find that LI is quite famous! But you may be surprised what Long Island is well known for - and it's not pizza or bagels - and you will find people very, very curious about why Long Island is so full of PSYCHICS - and paranormal activity.
Famous psychics and mediums from The Island include Teresa Caputo (the Long Island Medium) who hails from Hicksville. John Edward (Glen Cove) Kim Russo, (Oceanside) Joe Fargione, Sandy Mandel (Oyster Bay) and George Anderson (Deer Park) Cindi Sansone-Braff (The Romance Whisperer) and Jeffrey Wands - and I am probably missing a few. Or more.
Purported paranormal activity, has put Long Island on the map, in the movies and in print media.
A case of Spontaneous Human Combustion reportedly took place in Glen Cove in the 1940s.
In 1959, The Hermann family of Seaford put Long Island on the map when they were plagued by a poltergeist named "Popper". This case was investigated by famed psychic researcher Hans Holtzer, and is the basis of the "Poltergeist" movies.
The Amityville house. Enough said. Raynham Hall in Oyster Bay is purportedly haunted by the ghost of Sally Townshend, who is said to walk the halls of her family home pining for her British soldier.
10. Crimes and Misdemeanors - LI has many. From Cheryl Pierson, the Selden teenager who had her father murdered in the 1980s, later spawning a made for TV movie to serial killer Joel Rifkin to the sordid saga of Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco and the abduction of Katie Beers Long Island has more than it's fair share of sordid crimes. Ron DeFeo gunned down his family in Amityville. The Jessica Hahn - Jim Bakker scandal at the Massapequa Tabernacle, and the exploits of it's pastor, Jean Profetta.
I know I am missing some, but these come to mind.
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That put an end to that!
