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Long Island

Overview

The westernmost end of Long Island contains the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens (Queens County). The central and eastern portions contain the suburban Nassau and Suffolk counties. However, colloquial usage of the term "Long Island" refers only to Nassau and Suffolk counties; the more dense and urban Brooklyn and Queens are not usually referred to as "Long Island," since they are politically part of New York City.

Nassau County is more developed than Suffolk County, with pockets of rural affluence in the cliffs of the Gold Coast of the North Shore overlooking Long Island Sound and the equally affluent 5 Towns community on the South Shore hugging the Atlantic Ocean. South Shore communities are built along protected wetlands and white sand beaches fronting on the Atlantic Ocean and Outer Barrier Islands. Old money from the time of the Revolutionary War populated the island and still does to this day. American aristocrats and European nobility in the Roaring Twenties established large estates on the North Shore and in the 5 Towns area in the South Shore. Today, many exist in their original state, while others have been donated to the public as parks, arboretums, universities and museums.

Owing to economic growth and the suburbanization of the metropolitan region after World War II, Nassau was the fastest growing county in the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s. Suffolk County remains less congested despite substantial growth in high technology and light manufacturing sectors since 1990. In its far east sections, Suffolk remains small-town rural, as in Greenport on the North Fork and some of the outward areas of The Hamptons, although summer tourism swells the population in those areas.

Long Island is known for its affluence and high quality of life. According to the 2000 Census, Nassau County is the third richest county per capita in New York State, and the 30th richest in the nation. Long Island's Nassau County has the second highest property taxes in the United States.
Suffolk County has redeveloped North Fork potato fields into a burgeoning wine region. The South Fork is known for beach towns, including the world-renowned Hamptons, and for Montauk Point, home of Montauk Point Lighthouse at the eastern tip of the island.

Geography

Geology

NASA Landsat satellite image of Long Island and surrounding areas.

Long Island, as part of the Outer Lands region, is formed largely of two spines of glacial moraine, with a large, sandy outwash plain beyond. These moraines consist of gravel and loose rock left behind during the two most recent pulses of Wisconsin glaciation some 21,000 years ago (19,000 BC). The northern moraine, which directly abuts the North Shore of Long Island at points, is known as the Harbor Hill moraine. The more southerly moraine, known as the Ronkonkoma moraine, forms the "backbone" of Long Island; it runs primarily through the very center of Long Island, roughly coinciding with the length of the Long Island Expressway.

The land to the south of this moraine to the South Shore is the outwash plain of the last glacier. Known as the Hempstead Plains, this land contained one of the few natural prairies to exist east of the Appalachian Mountains.

The glaciers melted and receded to the north, resulting in the difference between the North Shore beaches and the South Shore beaches. The North Shore beaches are rocky from the remaining glacial debris, while the South Shore's are crisp, clear, outwash sand. Running along the center of the island like a spine is the moraine left by the glaciers. Jayne's Hill, at 401 feet, is the highest hill along either moraine; another well-known summit is Bald Hill. The glaciers also formed Lake Ronkonkoma, a kettle lake.

Climate

Long Island has a climate similar to other coastal areas of the Northeastern United States; it has warm, humid summers and cold winters. The Atlantic Ocean helps bring afternoon sea breezes that temper the heat in the warmer months and limit the frequency and severity of thunderstorms. Severe thunderstorms are not uncommon, especially when they approach the island from the mainland areas of the Bronx, Westchester County and Connecticut in the northwest.

Average yearly snowfall totals range from approximately , with the north shore and western parts averaging more than the south shore and the east end. In any given winter, however, some parts of the island could see up to or more. There are also some very quiet winters, in which most parts of the island could see less than .

An Animated Map of a Nor'easter's Movement.

Long Island is somewhat vulnerable to hurricanes. Its northern location and relatively cool waters tend to weaken storms to below hurricane strength by the time they reach Long Island, although despite this, some storms have made landfall at Category 1 or greater strength, including two unnamed Category 3 storms in 1938 (New England Hurricane of 1938) and 1944, Hurricane Donna in 1960, Hurricane Belle in 1976, Hurricane Gloria in 1985, Hurricane Bob in 1991 (brushed the eastern tip) and Hurricane Floyd in 1999. (There is debate among climatologists as to whether Hurricane Floyd made landfall as a Category 1 or as a very strong "almost hurricane strength" tropical storm. The official records note it as the latter.)

Demographics

Long Island is one of the most densely populated regions in the United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the total population of all four counties of Long Island was 7,448,618. New York City's portion of the census was 4,694,705, with Brooklyn's population at 2,465,326 and Queens having 2,229,379 residents.

The combined population of Nassau and Suffolk counties was 2,753,913 people; Suffolk County's share at 1,419,369 and Nassau County's at 1,334,544. Nassau County had a larger population for decades, but Suffolk County surpassed it in the 1990 census as growth and development continued to spread eastward. As Suffolk County has over twice the land area of Nassau County, the latter still has a much higher population density. Combining all four counties, Long Island's population is greater than 38 of the 50 United States. If it were an independent nation, it would rank as the 96th most populated nation, falling between Switzerland and Israel.

Population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau Census 2000 show that non-whites are in the majority in the two urban counties of New York City, while whites are in the majority in the two suburban counties of Nassau and Suffolk. Catholics are the largest religious group, with non-affiliated in second place.

Long Island has a substantial Italian-American population. There are roughly 800,000 residents of Italian-American ancestry residing on Long Island.

History

Montaukett tribe and their neighbors

The Brooklyn Bridge is the first of seven bridges constructed across the East River, connecting Long Island with the Borough of Manhattan (in background).

At the time of European contact, the Lenape people (named the Delaware by Europeans) inhabited the western end of the Island, and spoke the Munsee dialect of the Algonquian language family. Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with these people when he entered what is now New York Bay in 1524. The eastern portion of the island was inhabited by speakers of the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language group of the same language family, indicative of their ties to the aboriginal peoples inhabiting what is now Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The western portion of Long Island was later settled by the Dutch, while the eastern region was settled by English Puritans from New Haven, Connecticut, settling in Southold on October 21, 1640. The entirety of Long Island came under English dominion in 1664 when the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was taken over by the English and renamed New York. In 1683, the English established the three original counties on Long Island: Kings, Queens, and Suffolk.

During the American Revolutionary War, the island was captured from General George Washington early by the British in the Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the entire war. The island remained a British stronghold until the end of the war, and was the center of much of General Washington's espionage activities due to the proximity to the British North American military headquarters in New York City. After the British victory on Long Island many Patriots fled, leaving mostly Loyalists behind.

In the 19th century, Long Island was still mainly rural and agricultural. The predecessor to the Long Island Rail Road began service in 1836 from the ferry terminal (to Manhattan) through Brooklyn to Jamaica in Queens, and completed the line to the east end of Long Island in 1844. From 1830 until 1930, population roughly doubled every twenty years, and several cities were incorporated, such as the City of Brooklyn in Kings County, and Long Island City in Queens.

Until the 1883 completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, the only connection between Long Island and the rest of the United States was by boat. Other bridges and tunnels followed, and a suburban character spread as population increased. On January 1, 1898, Kings County and portions of Queens were consolidated into The City of Greater New York, abolishing all cities and towns within them. The easternmost of Queens County, which were not part of the consolidation plan,
separated from Queens in 1899 to form Nassau County.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Long Island began the transformation from backwoods and farms to the paradigm of the American suburb. Railroads made possible commuting suburbs before construction of the Long Island Expressway and other major roadways. Robert Moses created various parkway projects to span the island, along with state parks for the enjoyment of many. Gradually development started to follow the parkways, with various communities springing up along the more traveled routes.

After World War II, Long Island's population skyrocketed, mostly in Nassau County and western Suffolk County. People who worked and lived in New York City moved out to Long Island in new developments built during the post-war boom. The most famous post-war development was the town of Levittown: the area became the first place to massively reproduce houses on a grand scale- providing opportunities for GIs returning home to start a family. The immigration waves of southern and eastern Europe, followed by more recent ones from Latin America, have been pivotal in creating the diversity on Long Island that many other American regions lack. These immigrations are reflected in the large Italian American, Irish American and Jewish American populations.

Economy

The counties of Nassau and Suffolk have been long renowned for their affluence.

F-14 Tomcat on static display pedestal at Grumman Memorial Park, Calverton, New York

From about 1930 to about 1990, Long Island was considered one of the aviation centers of the United States, with companies such as Grumman Aircraft having their headquarters and factories in the Bethpage area.

Long Island has played a prominent role in scientific research and in engineering. It is the home of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in nuclear physics and Department of Energy research. In recent decades companies such as Sperry Rand, Computer Associates (headquartered in Islandia), Motorola Enterprise Mobility (now occupying the former headquarters of Symbol Technologies, previously a Grumman plant in Holtsville), and OpenLink Financial (headquartered in Uniondale), have made Long Island a center for the computer industry. Gentiva Health Services, a national provider of home health and pharmacy services, also is headquartered on Long Island. Stony Brook University of the State University of New York conducts far-ranging medical and technology research. Long Island is also home to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which was directed for 35 years by James D. Watson (who, along with Francis Crick, discovered the double helix structure of DNA).

Long Island is home to the East Coast's largest industrial park, the Hauppauge Industrial Park. The park has over 1,300 companies employing more than 55,000 Long Islanders. Companies in the park and abroad are represented by the Hauppauge Industrial Association.
As many as 20 percent of Long Islanders commute to New York City jobs.
The eastern end of the island is still partly agricultural. In the last 25 years, development of vineyards on the North Fork became a major new industry, replacing potato fields. Pumpkin farms have been added to traditional truck farming. Farms allow fresh fruit picking by Long Islanders for much of the year. Fishing continues to be an important industry, especially at Northport and Montauk.

Government and politics

Map of Long Island showing county and municipal boundaries.

Nassau County and Suffolk County each have their own governments, with a County Executive leading each. Each has a county legislature and countywide-elected officials, such as district attorney, county clerk and county comptroller. The towns in both counties have their own governments as well, with town supervisors and a town council. Within Nassau, there are two small incorporated cities (Glen Cove and Long Beach) with a combined population of about 65,000.
Brooklyn and Queens, on the other hand, do not have independent county governments. As boroughs of New York City, both have Borough Presidents, largely ceremonial offices with little political power. The shutdown of the city's Board of Estimate due to a Supreme Court decision declaring it unconstitutional, led to a reorganization of the city government.

Two Indian reservations - Poospatuck Reservation and Shinnecock Reservation located in Suffolk County are the home of Native Americans. Numerous island place names are Native American in origin.

Law enforcement and crime

In 2005, Forbes magazine listed Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk counties) as having 2,042 crimes per 100,000 residents, less than half the US average.

Queens and Brooklyn are patrolled by the New York City Police Department; Nassau has its own police department, as does Suffolk. New York State Police patrol state parks and parkways; several dozen villages and the two cities in Nassau have their own police departments.

Both Nassau and Suffolk have a sheriff's office that handles civil process, evictions, warrant service and enforcement, prisoner transport and detention, and operation of the county jail. The Nassau County Sheriff's Department employs about 1,000 correction officers and 100 deputy sheriffs and performs the above duties although deputy sheriffs have full police officer powers and can make arrests for any crime they come across.

The Suffolk County Sheriff's Office has approximately 900 correction officers and 260 deputy sheriffs and operates the two jail facilities in Suffolk County. The deputy sheriffs in Suffolk County have a full service patrol unit, including K9, Aviation, SWAT, and Marine divisions as well as a Criminal Investigation Division and various other special details and assignments. N.Y.S Court Officers secure court houses for Long Island courts. Additionally, the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department now maintains patrols along the Long Island Expressway as well as Sunrise Highway. State parkways are still patrolled by the New York State Police.

Secession proposals

On March 28, 2008 Suffolk County, New York Comptroller Joseph Sawicki and Keith Durgan proposed a plan that would make Long Island (specifically, Nassau and Suffolk counties) the 51st state of the United States of America. Sawicki says that all the Long Island taxpayers' money would stay on Long Island, rather than the funds being dispersed all over the entire state of New York. The state of Long Island would include over 2.7 million people. So far Nassau County executives have not expressed interest in joining in the secession proposal, which would need to be approved by the NY State Legislature.

Transportation

Platforms at Jamaica

<a href="http://reference.findtarget.com/search/LaGuardia Airport/" class="wiki">LaGuardia Airport</a> Aerial view

LaGuardia Airport Aerial view

I-495 NY Nassau County

Every major form of transportation serves Long Island, including John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Long Island MacArthur Airport, multiple smaller airports, railroads, subways, and several major highways. There are historic and modern bridges, recreational and commuter trails, and ferries as well.
The Long Island Expressway, Northern State Parkway, and Southern State Parkway, all products of the automobile-centered planning of Robert Moses, make east-west travel on the island straightforward, if not always quick.

There are currently ten road crossings out of Long Island, all within New York City limits at the extreme western end of the island. Plans for a Long Island Crossing at various locations in Nassau and Suffolk Counties have been discussed for decades, but there are currently no firm plans to construct such a crossing.

Rail

The Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter railroad system in North America, carrying an average of 282,400 customers each weekday on 728 daily trains.

Chartered on April 24, 1834, it is also the oldest railroad still operating under its original name.

Education

Primary and secondary education

Long Island's Nassau and Suffolk counties are home to 125 public school districts containing a total of 656 public schools. In contrast, all of Brooklyn and Queens are served by the New York City Department of Education, the largest school district in the United States. Long Island is also home to a number of private and parochial schools.

The main alley of Stony Brook West Campus

Colleges and universities

Nassau and Suffolk counties are home to numerous colleges and universities, including:Public

Branches of the State University of New York

*Stony Brook University, including Stony Brook Southampton campus

*SUNY College at Old Westbury

*Farmingdale State College

*Nassau Community College

*Suffolk County Community College

Other

*United States Merchant Marine Academy

Private

Adelphi University

Briarcliffe College - in Queens at Long Island City; Nassau at Bethpage; and Suffolk at Patchogue

Dowling College

Five Towns College

Hofstra University

Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus

Molloy College - in Rockville Centre

New York Institute of Technology

Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly Polytechnic University, now part of NYU) - has a "Long Island Graduate Center" in Suffolk, at Melville

Saint John's University

Saint Joseph's College (Suffolk Campus)

SBI-Melville - Sanford-Brown Institute campus at Melville

Touro Law Center

Watson School of Biological Sciences

Webb Institute

For colleges in Brooklyn and Queens, see List of colleges and universities in New York City.

Leisure and recreation

Resort areas

Food

Both Nassau and Suffolk County are home to thousands of restaurants, many of them top quality. As New York is known as a melting pot, every kind of restaurant from Mexican to Hungarian to Indian to Bengali can be found. These specialty restaurants are often family owned.

Small family-owned pizzerias are ubiquitous. It is not uncommon for a town on Long Island to have several different pizzerias, each with its own distinct flavor. The Long Island Pizza Festival & Bake-Off is an annual competition in which "mom and pop" pizzerias compete to be named best on Long Island.
Bagel stores and delis are common. Some bagel stores are Jewish-owned and approved as kosher. Long Island bagels are considered some of the best in the world. Often more than one deli can be found in a town.

Diners also abound on Long Island; many are Greek- and German-owned, and many, depending on the business of the town, are open all night, for late-night patrons.

Almost all major fast food and casual dining chains have a presence on Long Island as well.

Athletics

Long Island is home to numerous famous athletes, including hall of famers Jim Brown, Julius Erving, John Mackey and Carl Yastrzemski. Others include Gold Medalist Sarah Hughes, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Billy Donovan, Jumbo Elliott, Mick Foley, Matt Serra, Boomer Esiason, Vinny Testaverde, Craig Biggio, Frank Catalanotto, Greg Sacks, Rob Burnett, Steve Park, Frank Viola, Marques Colston and Speedy Claxton. Several current NHL Players such as New York Rangers Christopher Higgins and Matt Gilroy as well as Toronto Maple Leaf Mike Komisarek and Los Angeles King Rob Scuderi were all raised on Long Island.

Ebbets Field, which stood in Brooklyn from 1913 to 1957, was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, who decamped to California after the 1957 season to become the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers won several National League penants in the 1940s and 1950s, losing several times in the World Series—often called Subway Series—to their Bronx rivals, the New York Yankees. The Dodgers won their lone championship in Brooklyn in the 1955 World Series versus the Yankees. The Barclays Center is a proposed sports arena, business and residential complex to be built partly on a platform over the Atlantic Yards at Atlantic Avenue, and is intended to serve as a new home for the New Jersey Nets.

The New York Mets baseball team now plays at the new Citi Field in Flushing, Queens. Their former stadium, Shea Stadium was also home for (The New York Jets football team from 1964 until 1983. The new stadium is designed with an exterior facade and main entry rotunda inspired by Ebbets Field. The Brooklyn Cyclones are a minor league baseball team, affiliated with the New York Mets. The Cyclones play at KeySpan Park just off the boardwalk on Coney Island in Brooklyn.

Nassau County is home to the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League and the New York Dragons of the Arena Football League, who both play at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. Long Island has been a hot spot for outdoor lacrosse at the youth and college level, which made way for a Major League Lacrosse team in 2001, the Long Island Lizards. The Lizards play at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale. The longest dirt Thoroughbred racecourse in the world is located in the Nassau County community of Elmont at Belmont Park.

Long Island is also home to the Long Island Ducks minor league baseball team of the Atlantic League. Their stadium, Citibank Park, is located in Central Islip. The American Basketball Association's Strong Island Sound play home games at Suffolk County Community College. The two main rugby teams are the Long Island RFC in East Meadow and the Suffolk Bull Moose in Stony Brook. It also has a professional soccer club, the Long Island Rough Riders, who play at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale. The Rough Riders have won two national championships, in 1995 and 2002.

Another category of sporting events popular in this region are Firematic Racing events, involving many local Volunteer fire departments.

Long Island also hosts one of the four tennis grand slams, the US Open. Every August (September, in olympic years) the best tennis players in the world travel to Long Island to play the championships, which is held in the USTA National Tennis Center, in Corona Park, near the La Guardia Airport. The complex also contains the biggest tennis stadium in the world, the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Music

Music on Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk) is influenced by the proximity to New York City and by the youth culture of the suburbs. Psychedelic rock was widely popular in the 1960s as flocks of disaffected youth travelled to NYC to participate in protest and the culture of the time. R & B also has a history on Long Island, especially in Nassau County, where population is denser and more closely influenced by New York City.

Nikon at Jones Beach Theater

Nikon at Jones Beach Theater is an outdoor amphitheatre, located at Jones Beach State Park. Jones Beach State Park is a popular place to view summer concerts, with new as well as classic artists performing there during the summer months at its outdoor venue. It hosts a large Fourth of July fireworks show every year, and the stands are filled. People park cars along the highway leading to the show, and others watch from the nearby beaches.

Long Island is also known for its schools' music programs. Many schools in Suffolk County have distinguished music programs, with high numbers of students who are accepted into the state-wide All-State music groups, or even the National All-Eastern Coast music groups. Both the Suffolk County and Nassau County Music Educator's Associations are recognized by The National Association of Music Education (MENC), and host numerous events, competitions, and other music-related activities.

Notable musicians of the Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County) music scene include; Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, godfather of punk rock Lou Reed, Acestar, Paul Simon,Johnny Ramone, Dream Theater, Debbie Gibson, Eddie Money, new-age musician John Tesh, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, folk singer Oscar Brand, Harry Chapin, De La Soul, Brooklyn Bridge, Ashanti, Dee Snider, LL Cool J, Lindsay Lohan, death metal band Suffocation, Chuck D, Flavor Flav, EPMD, Rakim, Blue Öyster Cult, Stray Cats, Nine Days, Vanilla Fudge, Marty Beller and Danny Weinkauf, Glassjaw, Taking Back Sunday, Sam "Bluzman" Taylor, Straylight Run, Patent Pending, Nightmare of You, Latterman, From Autumn to Ashes, Brand New, virtuoso guitarists Steve Vai, Stereo Skyline, Joe Satriani, and Lee Ranaldo, and underground MCs Aesop Rock and MF Doom.

Artists from the counties of Kings and Queens have been numerous. Notable hip-hop artists from these counties have included Jay Z, Nas, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Mobb Deep, LL Cool J, Q-Tip, Fugees, Mos Def, Foxy Brown, Fabolous, Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, the Beastie Boys, They Might Be Giants, Folk Artist Art Garfunkel, Run-D.M.C., and A Tribe Called Quest.