The Islands of "Barretto Bay"

The Islands of "Barretto Bay". . , Barretto Point Park , Opened 2006, North Brother Island is best known for housing Riverside Hospital, which opened in 1886 to quarantine and treat people with contagious diseases. Originally named Smallpox Hospital, it was founded in the 1850's on the island now known as Roosevelt Island to treat and isolate victims of that disease. Its mission eventually expanded to include other diseases believed to require quarantining, such as tuberculosis, typhus and polio., Mary Mallon (1869-1938), better known as "Typhoid Mary", was probably North Brother Island's most notorious resident. In 1883 she emigrated to the United States from Ireland, and became a cook in private homes in and around New York City., She contracted a mild case of typhoid fever, but was never cured, so she was able to carry the disease and spread it to others. Because Typhoid Fever is transmitted through contaminated food and water, an infected food handler who doesn't wash her hands can easily spread the disease. Between 1900 to 1907 Mary Mallon infected 22 people in the several homes she worked in, two of whom died., Mallon refused to believe she had typhus, or was infectious, and had to be forcibly captured by the New York City Health Inspector and quarantined at the hospital at North Brother Island. After three years in isolation she was released on the condition she not work with food. However in 1915 she returned to cooking and infected 25 people while working at Sloan Hospital for Women in Manhattan, two of whom died., Mary was eventually caught again, and sent back to North Brother Island , this time for life. She died there in 1938 of pneumonia., South Brother Island was the summer home of Colonel Jacob Ruppert who owned a brewery and the New York Yankees, from 1897 to 1907. Babe Ruth practiced his swing here by hitting balls into , Barretto Bay"., After World War II the island briefly housed war veterans who were students at local colleges. In the 1950's. Riverside Hospital opened a drug treatment facility for adolescents. However, the program closed in 1963, due to a low rate of treatment success and mismanagement. The island is currently abandoned but has become a very rich bird habitat., Rikers Island was named for the Ryker family, descendants of Abraham Rycken, a Dutch settler who moved to Long Island in 1638. The 87-acre island was used as a farm for the next two and a quarter centuries. During the Civil War, the island was used as a training ground for African-American regiments. The City bought the island from the Ryker family in 1884 for $180,000 to use as a jail farm. Between the late 19th and mid 20th Centuries, the island expanded through land-filling to its current 415 acres., In the early 1930's, the first of Riker's Island jails opened for business. The prison facility would eventually total 10 jails and house an average daily prisoner population of 15,000 inmates. While Riker's Island is only accessible by road through Queens, it is officially part of the Bronx.