Staten Island

Staten Island. . , Staten Island is located five miles from lower Manhattan. With a population of 500,000, Staten Island is the least populated and most pastoral of the five boroughs of New York., Some things you may not know about Staten Island: , . It is the southernmost point in New York State , . It connects to New Jersey via three vehicular bridges, including the Bayonne Bridge – the third longest steel arch bridge in the world. , . It connects to Brooklyn via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Built in 1964, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time, and is still the longest suspension bridge in the United States. (You can see both these bridge from this point) , . During World War II, a submarine net stretching across the Narrows prevented attacks by German submarines in New York Harbor. , . Connection to Manhattan is made by the ubiquitous orange ferry boats which transverse the harbor more than 100 times per day, carrying more than two million people to and from Staten Island every year. , . It was named Staaten Eyelandt by Henry Hudson after the Staten-Generaal, the name of the Dutch parliament. , . It became part of the English Colony of New York after the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667. , . More than two hundred years later, in 1898, the towns and villages on the island were joined in the consolidation of the City of Greater New York, as one of its five boroughs. , . More than 5,000 Staten Islanders joined in the armed services during World War I, more men per capita than any other county in the US. , . The Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island was the largest such facility in the country at 2200 acres until it was closed in 2001. Fresh Kills is being redeveloped as a park. , . The summit of Todt Hill, elevation 410 ft, is the highest point on the island and the five boroughs, as well as the highest point on the Atlantic Coast, south of Maine’s Mount Desert Island.