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Roosevelt Island Review

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Roosevelt Island

Address: Tramway entrance at 2nd Ave. and either 59th St. or 60th St., Upper East Side, New York, NY, 10044 | Map It
Phone: 212/832-4555
www.rioc.com, island corporation, www.rihs.us, historical society

Category: Neighborhoods/Streets
Location: Upper East Side

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Fodor's Review:

Although Roosevelt Island (the 2-mi-long East River slice of land that parallels Manhattan from East 48th to East 85th streets) is now a quasi-suburb of 10,000 people, the vestiges of its infamous asylums, hospitals, and prisons make this an offbeat trip for the historically curious. At the south tip is the Renwick Ruin, the eerie remains of a smallpox hospital built in the Gothic Revival style. On a small park at the island's north tip is a lighthouse built in 1872 by island convicts. Most of what's in between (new condominiums and a modern-day hospital) is fairly banal, but riverside esplanades provide nice panoramas of Manhattan. You can get here by subway, but more fun is the five-minute ride on the Roosevelt Island Tramway, the only commuter cable car in North America, which lifts you 250 feet in the air, with impressive views of Queens and Manhattan. A visitor center, made from an old trolley kiosk, stands to your left as you exit the tram. Red buses service the island, 25¢ a ride.

Cost: $2 (subway Metrocard accepted)
Open: Sun.-Thurs. 6AM-2AM, Fri. and Sat. 6AM-3:30AM; leaves every 15 mins
Subway: F to Roosevelt Island

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