north brother island new york city bronx google maps Google Earth; Business Insider

Less than a mile from Manhattan — one of the priciest and most densely populated places on Earth — exists a little-known island that people abandoned nearly 55 years ago.

„North Brother Island is among New York City’s most extraordinary and least known heritage and natural places,“ wrote the authors of a recent University of Pennsylvania study about the location.

The city owns the 22-acre plot of land in the East River, which sits between the South Bronx’s industrial coast and Rikers Island Correctional Center — New York City’s most infamous jail.

Almost no one is permitted on North Brother Island and its smaller companion, South Brother Island, except for birds. But even they don’t seem to want to live among its crumbling, abandoned structures (and contrary to Broad City’s depiction of the island, there is no working package pick-up center).

But Business Insider recently took a tour as part of a Science Channel TV shoot, whose producers obtained permission from the city to go.

Here’s what we saw and learned while romping around one of New York’s spookiest and most forgotten places.

New York City owns a creepy island that almost no one is allowed to visit — here’s what it’s like

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