Long Island

Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, USA, its western shores directly across from Manhattan, from which the island stretches northeast into the Atlantic Ocean. It contains four counties, two of which (Queens and Kings) are boroughs (Queens and Brooklyn) of New York City, and two of which (Nassau and Suffolk) are suburbs of that city. Long Island Sound is the body of water between its northern shore and the state of Connecticut.

True to its name, Long Island is much longer than it is wide, extending 118 miles (190 km) from New York Harbor, and it varies in width from 12 to 23 miles (19 to 37 km) between the northern Long Island Sound coast and the southern Atlantic coast. With an area of 1,401 square miles (3,629 km2), Long Island is the largest island in the continental United States and the 149th largest island in the world. It is connected to the mainland by several bridges and tunnels through New York City, and ferries to Connecticut from Suffolk County.

Long Island had a population of 7,448,618 as of the 2000 census, with the population estimated at 7,559,372 as of July 1, 2006, making it the most populated island in any U.S. state or territory. It is also the 17th most populous island in the world, ahead of Ireland, Jamaica and the Japanese island of Hokkaidō. Its population density is 5,470 people per square mile (2,110 per km2).

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” or “the 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 urbanized and congested than Suffolk County, with pockets of rural affluence in the cliffs of the Gold Coast of the North Shore overlooking the Long Island Sound. South Shore communities are built along protected wetlands and white sand beaches fronting on the Atlantic Ocean, which bring additional pockets of affluence to Long Island. Old money from the time of the Revolutionary War populated some of the island and still does to this day. Nouveau riches in the Roaring Twenties established large estates on the North Shore. Some have been donated to the public domain and become parks or museums; others have been redeveloped as conference or academic centers.

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 10th 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.

It is local custom to say “on Long Island” rather than “in Long Island” when referring to locations in the region. This usage is consistently employed by local newspapers including The New York Times and Newsday.

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. (Bald Hill is the highest point along the moraine.) The glaciers also formed Lake Ronkonkoma, a kettle lake.

The island’s tallest natural point is Jayne’s Hill near Melville, with an elevation of 400.9 feet (122.2 m) above sea level. Long Island is separated from the mainland by the East River, which is actually not a river, but a tidal strait. Long Island Sound forms the northern boundary of the island.

Long Island contains a series of sand and gravel aquifers, geologic formations which can hold, transmit and yield water in usable quantities. All of Long Island’s water supply comes from underground water held in aquifers. Stacked one on top of the other like layers in a cake, three major and one minor aquifer make up the Long Island aquifer system. In sequence from shallowest to deepest, the Long Island aquifers are: the Upper Glacial, the Magothy and the Lloyd Aquifers. All Long Island aquifers receive their fresh water from precipitation which takes from 25 to 1,000 years to migrate through the layers to the aquifers, which hold roughly 70 trillion US gallons (260 km3)—enough to flood the entire surface of Long Island with more than 300 feet (90 m) of water—and can withstand long droughts that dry up surface-water reservoirs like the ones that supply New York City. Almost four million gallons each day are taken from beneath Nassau and Suffolk Counties, providing the primary source of water for the resident population. While most homes are on a municipal water system, there are still many areas where homes have their own wells to provide water. Both Nassau and Suffolk counties have long recognized their dependence on the aquifers and have stipulated that recharge basins be built (sumps) that collect ground water. Recharge basins are required and sized based upon the scale of any new development on Long Island. Due to contamination associated with development, concern to preserve the quality of Long Island’s groundwater has become the single most important factor limiting the region’s growth.

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. Combined, 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.

As of the 2000 census, the racial makeup of the island was 57.16% White, 21.18% African American, 0.36% Native American, 9.06% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 8.17% other races, and 4.01% from two or more races. 17.82% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

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:

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.

A Native American name for Long Island is reportedly “Paumanok“, meaning “the island that pays tribute.” More powerful tribes in the surrounding areas are alleged to have forced the relatively peaceful Long Islanders to give tributes and payment to avoid attacks.

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. 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. There was a notable loyalist element, especially in Hempstead, though three signers of the Declaration of Independence – William Floyd, Francis Lewis and Philip Livingston – lived on Long Island. Yankees in northern and eastern parts were more inclined to Rebel sentiments, but after the British victory on Long Island many Patriots fled, leaving mostly Loyalists behind. 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.

African Americans have been an integral part of Long Island history, most arriving first as slaves before the Revolution and working both at domestic and rural trades. New York and Long Island kept slavery until it was outlawed in 1799, with remnants remaining until 1827. Most freedpeople settled near where they had been living and had connections.

19th century Long Island was rural and agricultural, except in parts of Kings (Brooklyn) and Queens counties, which were consolidated into “The City of Greater New York” on January 1, 1898. The easternmost 280 square miles (725 km²) of Queens County, which were not part of the consolidation plan, separated 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. Jones Beach on the Atlantic Ocean is the most famous, “the crown jewel in Moses’ State Park System”. Long Island quickly became New York City’s retreat – with millions of people going to and from the city to the new state parks. Gradually development started to follow the parkways, with various communities springing up along the more traveled routes: (the Southern State Parkway, the Northern State Parkway, and, in the 1960s, the Long Island Expressway). Many early developments had restrictive covenants on residents, but these changed after the Civil Rights Movement.

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. Positioned along the Wantagh Parkway in the area formally known as Island Trees, the area became the first place to massively reproduce houses on a grand scale- providing great opportunity for GI’s returning home to start a family. After the success of Levittown, other areas modeled what some people criticize as “suburban sprawl”. Nassau County became more densely populated than Suffolk County because its residential areas were closer to jobs then concentrated in New York City.

Many immigrants and African Americans moving from New York City have made comfortable lives on Long Island. The immigration waves of southern and eastern Europe, followed by more recent ones from Asia and Africa, 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. Typically the immigrants lived in the more urban western parts of the island, and their descendants farther east. Late 20th century immigrants have often moved directly to Nassau County and other suburban areas.

The counties of Nassau and Suffolk have several affluent areas, several working class areas, and several middle class areas.

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. Grumman was long the source of top warplanes for the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps, as seen in the movie Top Gun and numerous WW-II naval and Marine Corps aviation movies. Prominent WW-II Grumman aircraft included the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat fighters, and the TBF Avenger bomber, flown by hundreds of U.S. and Allied pilots, including former President George H.W. Bush.

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), and Motorola Enterprise Mobility (now occupying the former headquarters of Symbol Technologies, previously a Grumman plant in Holtsville, New York), 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 in 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 co-discovered the double helix structure of DNA with Francis Crick).

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