Barren Island, Brooklyn facts for kids
View of Barren Island from Dead Horse Bay
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| Etymology | Dutch for "Bears' Island" |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Jamaica Bay |
| Coordinates | 40°35′34″N 73°53′35″W / 40.59278°N 73.89306°W |
| Archipelago | Outer Barrier |
| Administration | |
| State | New York |
| City | New York City |
| Borough | Brooklyn |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 1,500 (1930s) |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone | |
| • Summer (DST) |
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Barren Island was once an island, but now it's a peninsula on the southeast shore of Brooklyn in New York City. It's located in Jamaica Bay. This area was originally part of a group of islands called the Outer Barrier on the South Shore of Long Island.
Long ago, Native Americans from the Lenape tribe lived on Barren Island. When Dutch settlers arrived in the 1600s, they called it "Beeren Eylandt," which means "Bears' Island" in Dutch. Over time, this name changed to Barren Island.
For many years, not many people lived on Barren Island because it was quite far away from the rest of the city. But starting in the 1850s, the island became a busy industrial area. Factories were built there, especially ones that processed fish and other animal parts. About 1,500 people from many different backgrounds lived there.
From the mid-1800s until 1934, the island had factories that processed dead horses from the city. They turned the horse carcasses into various products. Because of this, the water near the island's western shore became known as "Dead Horse Bay." There was also a garbage incinerator (a place that burned trash) on the island from the 1890s to 1921. People often complained about the bad smell from this incinerator.
In its final years, the community on Barren Island was sometimes called South Flatlands. By the 1920s, most of the factories had closed down. To connect the island to the rest of Brooklyn, workers used landfill (filling in land with dirt and waste). Most residents had to move out in the late 1920s so that a new airport, Floyd Bennett Field, could be built. A few families were allowed to stay until 1942, when the airfield was made even bigger to be used as a military base during wartime by the United States Navy. Today, you won't find any signs of the old factories or industries on the former island. Since 1972, Floyd Bennett Field has been part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service.
Images for kids
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Map of the Gateway National Recreation Area's Jamaica Bay unit; Barren Island was located near where Floyd Bennett Field is now
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A 1916 diagram of Barren Island, showing the inlets on the island prior to the 1920s filling operations
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A factory on Barren Island, pictured c. 1911–1916
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Map of Wards 31 and 32 in 1920, showing Barren Island under "Sections 38 and 39"
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The decommissioned Floyd Bennett Field, located on the former Barren Island site
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