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Amazing Long Island

Geography/Geology

• 121 miles long and 23 miles wide at the most extant points • Largest island on mainland USA • Larger than Rhode Island • Formed by glaciers about 19,000 BCE • Hempstead Plains, a glacial outwash plain, is one of the few natural

prairies to exist east of the Appalachian Mountains • Long Island consists of Brooklyn and Queens (boroughs of NYC) and

Nassau and Suffolk Counties • Long Island’s linear shoreline extends an estimated 1,600 miles

© 2015, Charles Kaplan Amazing Long Island 2

Colonial History

• 1524 – Verrazzano is the first European to encounter natives from the Delaware tribe in New York Bay. The eastern end of Long Island was inhabited by the Pequot and Narrangansett people.

• 1609 – Henry Hudson lands (purportedly) at Coney Island • 1615 – Adriaen Block discovers Manhattan and Long Island are islands • 1637 – Lion Gardiner settles on Gardiners Island • 1640 – 1st settlements on Long Island, Southold and Southampton • c1664 – Long Island became part of the Province of New York


USA History

• 1776 – Long Island is seized by the British from General George Washington and the Continental Army in the Battle of Long Island. It remained a British stronghold until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.

• 1836 – The predecessor to the Long Island Rail Road began service in Brooklyn and Queens. The line was completed to Montauk in 1844. The LIRR is the oldest and busiest commuter line in the USA.

• 1883 – Brooklyn Bridge erected providing the ground connection to Long Island, previously only accessible by boat.

• 1898 – Brooklyn and Queens incorporated into NYC • 1899 – Nassau County formed from part of Queens © 2015, Charles Kaplan Amazing Long Island 4

Secession

• The secession of Long Island from New York was proposed as early as 1896, but talk was revived towards the latter part of the twentieth century.

• On March 28, 2008 Suffolk County, New York Comptroller Joseph Sawicki proposed a plan that would make Long Island (specifically, Nassau and Suffolk counties) the 51st state of the United States of America.

• Long Island taxpayers' money would stay on Long Island, rather than the funds being dispersed all over the entire state of New York. Currently, Long Island sends to Albany over three billion dollars more than it receives back.

• The state of Long Island would include over 2.7 million people (larger than that of fifteen other states).

• 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.


Demographics

• Long Island Population (2010) – 7.6M • Brooklyn – 2.5M, Queens – 2.3M, Nassau – 1.3M, Suffolk – 1.5M • Most populous island in the USA • If Long Island were its own state, it would be the 13th largest in the

USA with the highest population density • Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the United States

among counties of 100,000+ population


Economy

• Fishing and Farming – early history • Aviation – From about 1930 to 1990, Grumman Aircraft, Republic,

Fairchild, and Curtiss. • Scientific Research – Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook

University of SUNY, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

• Technology – Sperry Rand, Computer Associates, Motorola Enterprise Mobility (formerly Symbol Technologies).

• 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 71,000 Long Islanders.


Top 10 Companies by Sales as of 2013

Annual sales

Company/Community (millions) Employees Industry

Henry Schein Inc. / Melville $8,939.967 15,000 Health Care Distributors

Cablevision Systems Corp. / Bethpage $6,705.461 18,889 Cable & Satellite

CA Inc. / Islandia $4,643.000 13,600 Systems Software

Systemax Inc. / Port Washington $3,544.600 5,300 Computer & Electronics Retail

Pall Corp. / Port Washington $2,671.656 10,800 Industrial Machinery

MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc. / Melville $2,355.918 4,982 Trading Companies & Distributors

Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. / $2,303.500 6,200 IT & Outsourced Services Lake Success

Hain Celestial Group Inc. / Melville $1,378.247 3,720 Packaged Foods & Meats

Veeco Instruments Inc. / Plainview $ 979.135 917 Semiconductor Equipment

Kimco Realty Corp. / New Hyde Park $ 922.304 635 Retail REITs


Films Shot on Long Island


Oliver’s Story – 1978 The Associate – 1996 The Avengers – 2012 The Godfather – 1972 The Great Gatsby – 1974 The Manchurian Candidate – 2004 The Wolf of Wall Street - 2013

Annie Hall – 1977 Arthur – 1981 Cruel Intensions – 1999 L.I.E. – 2001 Men in Black 3 – 2012 Noah – 2014 North by Northwest – 1959

Notable Long Islanders

• Chris Angel • Pat Benetar • Jim Brown • Ed Burns • Sid Caesar • Kenneth Cole • Francis Ford Coppola • Tony Danza • Brian Dennehy • Edie Falco • F. Scott Fitzgerald • Doris Kearns Goodwin • Alan King • Jerry Seinfeld


• Melissa Joan Hart • Joey Heatherton • Sarah Hughes • Kevin James • Billy Joel • Bob Keeshan • Jackie Kennedy • Lori Laughlin • Patti Lupone • Ralph Macchio • Rosie O’Donnell • Bill O’Reilly • Steve Madden • Marx Brothers • Idina Menzel • Meg Whitman

• Steve Buscemi • Mariah Carey • LL Cool J • Bob Costas • Billy Crystal • Jennifer Capriati • Rodney Dangerfield • Julius Irving • Boomer Esiason • Debbie Gibson • Eddie Money • Eddie Murphy • Susan Lucci

• Soledad O’Brien • Lou Reed • Telly Salavas • Jamie-Lynn Sigler • Howard Stern • John Tesh • Vinnie Testaverde • Walt Whitman • Carl Yastrzemski • Carol Alt • Baldwin Brothers • Lindsay Lohan • George Segal

National Historic Landmarks Nassau County • Christeen (sloop), Oyster Bay, Oldest oyster sloop in USA • Fort Massapeag, Oyster Bay, Archaeological site • John Philip Sousa House, Port Washington

Suffolk County • 1st Presbyterian Church (Old Whalers), Sag Harbor • Fort Corchaug, Southold, Native American Archeological site • Modesty (sloop), West Sayville, only oyster sailboat in existence • Montauk Point Light, East Hampton, oldest NY and 4th oldest USA • Thomas Moran House, East Hampton, home Hudson River School painter • William Sidney Mount House, Stony Brook, Home and Studio of painter • Old House, Cutchogue, Built in 1649, finest example of English domestic architecture in the USA • Jackson Pollack House and Studio, East Hampton • Priscilla (sloop), West Sayville, classic Long Island oyster dredging sloop • Rudolph Oyster House, West Sayville, 20th century seafood processing plant


Museums

There are over 100 museums on Long Island, here are the top 10, according to Newsday:

• The Museum at Guild Hall, East Hampton • Parrish Art Museum, Southampton • Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages, Stony Brook • Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor • Garvies Point Museum and Preserve, Glen Cove • African American Museum of Nassau County, Hempstead • Long Island Children’s Museum, Garden City • Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City • Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville • Hecksher Museum of Art, Huntington


Long Island Fun Facts


Charles Lindbergh

In 1927 Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field as he embarked on the first non-stop trans-Atlantic solo flight. His goal that day was to win a $25,000 prize offered by Raymond Orteig. There were competing teams going for the prize, some who met with disaster.


Camp Sigfried, Yaphank

Yaphank was home to Camp Siegfried, a summer camp which taught Nazi ideology. The camp was shut down by the US government when Germany declared war on the United States. It had been protected by the 1st Amendment until that time, when it became illegal for US citizens to swear allegiance to Germany.


Wild Parrots on Long Island

The theory that is most widely accepted is that a large shipment of birds destined for sale at New York area pet shops was accidentally released at Kennedy Airport around 1967 or 1968. Although the parrots were not officially spotted until the early 1970's, it is believed the parrots survived in the parklands surrounding the airport, and over time made their way to Brooklyn and surrounding areas where we find them today.


7-Eleven

The 7-Eleven in Montauk is the highest-grossing in America, beating out 7,800 other stores. In fact, the nation’s four most lucrative 7-Elevens are all in Suffolk County, with locations in East Patchogue, Southampton and Farmingville following close behind.


Nassau Coliseum

The Grateful Dead have played at the Nassau Coliseum more than any other band, 35 times.


Cattle Ranch

Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk was the first operating cattle ranch in the United States and is the birthplace of the American Cowboy.


Suburbia

Levittown, the first suburbia in the U.S., was built on Long Island in 1947. Homes originally sold for $7,990. In its early years, Levittown was a segregated community.


Water Mill/Windmill

The only working water mill and windmill in the U.S. are located in the Long Island community of Water Mill. Tennessee Williams lived in a wind mill in South Hampton in the summer of 1957, when he wrote the one-act play "The Day on Which a Man Dies."


Radio

The first radio transmission, by wireless inventor Guglielmo Marconi, was in 1901 on Fire Island Avenue in Babylon.


Supermarket

America's first supermarket, King Kullen, started on Long Island in 1930.


To The Moon, Alice

The Lunar Module which landed men on the moon in 1969, was built on Long Island by the Grumman Corp.


Checkers

Richard Nixon's deceased dog Checkers is buried at Long Island's Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery in Wantagh.


William Floyd Mastic was the home of William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.


United Nations

The United Nations was based in Lake Success from 1945 until the cornerstone of the present UN building in Manhattan was laid in 1951


Smithtown, No Bull

There's a famous story about how Englishman Richard Smith jumped on a bull, Whisper, and traced out the boundaries of Smithtown. It makes for a wonderful tale. It's also not true. But the legend lives on, and a 14-foot-tall bull, which was placed atop a concrete pedestal in 1941 at the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Route 25A, remains the iconic symbol of the Suffolk County town


Long Island – Photography USA Long Island is the USA HQ location for: • Canon • Nikon • Sigma • Tamron


Jones Beach

This iconic structure at Jones Beach is not a lighthouse or a monument, it is a water tower.


The Flanders Duck

The Big Duck, which looms over Route 24 in Flanders, was originally built in 1931 by Riverhead duck farmer Martin Maurer as a place to sell his ducks and eggs. There were thousands of duck farms along the creeks and bays of Southampton from the late 1800s to the 1960s.


John Quincy Adams

President John Quincy Adams was a Massachusetts native, but he is said to have bought a summer home in Deer Park in 1835 and to have spent many summers there until his death in 1848. The boundaries of the Adams home are long forgotten, but it was somewhere in the vicinity of Adams Street, about a half-mile west of Deer Park Avenue.


Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Shinnecock Hills, established in 1891, is the first private 18-hole golf club in the country. It hosted the U.S. Open Golf Championship four times and will again in 2018.


Play Ball!

Black professional baseball can be traced back to Babylon. Waiters and porters from the old Argyle Hotel in Babylon Village in 1885 made up what is believed to be the first all-black professional baseball team. The team was originally called the Athletics of Babylon, but a New Jersey promoter bankrolled them as the Cuban Giants. He billed them as Cubans because he didn't believe whites would watch blacks play.


The Parkway Diner

The Parkway Diner, mentioned in Billy Joel’s “Ballard of Brenda and Eddie”, was located in Hicksville at the intersection of Levittown Parkway and Old County Road.


Franklin National Bank

Long Island's Franklin National Bank claimed to have created the nation's first drive-up bank window and also issued the country's first credit card. Unfortunately for Franklin, its record setting didn't end there. The bank's collapse on Dec. 9, 1974 was, at the time, the nation's largest U.S. bank failure.


Amityville Horror

Yes, the Amityville Horror house is on Long Island. That, everyone knows. But did you know the original 112 Ocean Avenue address has been changed at least twice since the 1970s-era hauntings? The house number was changed to stop out-of-towners from stopping and staring at the house.


Money 5 Billionaires and 6,644 Millionaires live on Long Island.


Brookville

Wealthiest town in the USA Brookville, N.Y. Overall rank: 1 Households: 848 Average income: $328,404 Average net worth: $1,670,075 Income rank: 7 Net worth rank: 4


Lobster

Lobster, in colonial times was so abundant on Long Island, that it was, strange to say, considered a pauper’s food. It was most commonly found in the dinner troughs of pigs, cows, and goats, its shells ground up and scattered over the rest of the farm as manure.


Sagamore Hill

While at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, Theodore Roosevelt learned of his nomination for governor of New York in 1898, for vice-president of the United States in 1900, and of the successful presidential election in 1904. It became the summer White House when he assumed the presidency in 1901.


Robert Moses – Long Island Projects McCarren Park

Meadowbrook State Parkway

Meadowbrook State Parkway

Montauk Point State Park

New York State Route 135

New York State Route 878

Nikon at Jones Beach Theater

Northern State Parkway

Oak Beach–Captree, New York

Ocean Parkway (Long Island)

Orient Beach State Park

Outer barrier

Prospect Expressway

Prospect Park Zoo

Queens Zoo

Robert Moses Causeway


Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

Fort Greene Park

Gilgo, New York

Gilgo-Oak Beach-Captree, New York

Gowanus Expressway

Grand Central Parkway

Heckscher State Park

Heckscher State Parkway

Hempstead Lake State Park

Hither Hills State Park

Interstate 495 (New York)

Interstate 678

Jacob Riis Park

Jones Beach State Park

Kissena Park

Loop Parkway

1939 New York World's Fair

1964 New York World's Fair

Alley Pond Park

Astoria Park

Bay Parkway (Jones Beach)

Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park

Belmont Lake State Park

Belt Parkway

Bethpage State Park

Bethpage State Parkway

Bronx–Whitestone Bridge

Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel

Brooklyn–Queens Expressway

Captree State Park

Connetquot River State Park Preserve

Cross Island Parkway

Robert Moses State Park (Long Island)

Robert Moses State Parkway

Rockaway Beach, Queens

Sagtikos State Parkway

Shea Stadium

Shore Front Parkway

Southern State Parkway

Sunken Meadow State Park

Sunken Meadow State Parkway

Throgs Neck Bridge

Triborough Bridge

Valley Stream State Park

Verrazano–Narrows Bridge

Wantagh State Parkway

Westbrook, Suffolk County, New York

Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards

George Washington’s Victory Lap - April 1790 He started his tour in New Utrecht, dining “at the house of a Mr. Barre…the man was obliging but little else recommended it.” The next day he watered his horses in Hempstead before stopping for dinner at the Zebulon Ketcham house in Copiague and spending the night at Squire Isaac Thompson’s home, Sagtikos Manor, in West Bay Shore. The next morning, Washington “halted awhile” at Samuel Green’s place in West Sayville before dining at Hart’s Tavern in Patchogue. He headed to Setauket the next day and spent the night at a “tolerably” decent tavern owned by Austin Roe, who had played a key role in his Revolutionary War intelligence network known as the Culper Spy Ring. Setting out early the following morning, he fed his horses at “a decent house” owned by “Widow Blydenburgh” in Smithtown before dining at “a tolerably good” house owned by “a Widow Platt” in Huntington and stopping for the night in Oyster Bay at Daniel Young’s homestead. For his last day on Long Island Washington got up at 6 a.m., and later had breakfast in Roslyn at Hendrick Onderdonk’s spread, getting a tour of his grist and paper mills (making a sheet by hand, family legend has it). For dinner he stopped in Flushing before riding to Brooklyn, where he took the ferry back to Manhattan as the sun was setting.


The Long Island Express

And you thought Hurricane Sandy was bad. On September 21, 1938 The New England Hurricane of 1938 (Also Called "The Long Island Express") makes landfall on Suffolk County as a category 3 hurricane. Wind gusts of 125 mph and storm surge of 18 feet washes across part of the island. In New York 60 deaths and hundreds of injuries were attributed to the storm and 2,600 boats and 8,900 houses are destroyed. Throughout New England the hurricane killed over 682 people, damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at $4.7B.


35 Years Before Salem

The first witch hunt and trial in the U.S. occurred in East Hampton in 1657. 15 year old Liz Gardiner, daughter of Lion Gardiner, implicated Goody Garlick on her deathbed and died the next day.


Floyd Bennett Field

Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn was established in the early 1930s, it was NYC’s first commercial airport. It was the start point or terminus of historic flights by Amelia Earhart, Roscoe Turner, Wiley Post, and Howard Hughes. It is still used today for Presidential flights to NYC.


America’s Poet Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington. Whitman was chased away from a teaching job in Southold, New York in 1840 after a local preacher called him a "Sodomite", Whitman was allegedly tarred and feathered.


Natalie Portman, Scientist

Although Natalie Portman is best known as an actor, winning the Academy Award as Nina in the Black Swan, as a student at Syosset High School she was a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. Her entry was “A Simple Method to Demonstrate the Enzymatic Production of Hydrogen from Sugar”.


Harry Chapin

Harry Chapin, of Huntington, is well known for his story-telling songs and philanthropy. He died in a car accident on the L.I.E. on July 16, 1981 on his way to perform a free concert in Eisenhower Park. LISUG’s own Steve Kurzban was in the audience that day for the concert that was not to be.


Intel Science Talent Search

Seven high schools on Long Island - Ward Melville High School (E. Setauket), Paul D. Schreiber High School (Port Washington), Jericho High School, Great Neck North High School, Lawrence High School (Cedarhurst), Great Neck South High School and John F. Kennedy High School (Bellmore) are among the top 20 schools in the USA for finalists and semi-finalist in the annual competition.


The Gold Coast

On the North Shore of Long Island, in the early 20th century, wealthy industrialists and bankers such as the Vanderbilts, Astors, Whitneys, Morgans, Pratts, Hearsts, and Guggenheims built opulent homes referred to as Gold Coast Mansions. One of these was the second largest residence in the U.S., Otto Kahn's Oheka Castle. Over 500 mansions were built for the wealthy families and only about 200 survive today.


Time Travel in Montauk

World War II saw the advent of many top-secret projects aimed at developing new forms of weaponry and technology. Obviously, the most famous of these was the Manhattan Project. The Montauk Project is an alleged series of secret United States government projects conducted at Camp Hero or Montauk Air Force Station on Montauk, Long Island for the purpose of developing psychological warfare techniques and exotic research including time travel.


Slave Revolt on Long Island

February 28, 1708 – One of the first recorded slave revolts in America (pre USA) occurs in Newtown (Long Island City), Long Island, New York. Seven white people were killed. In retaliation, following the rebellion, a black woman is burned alive and two black men were hanged.


Plum Island Animal Disease Center of NY

PIADCNY is a federal research facility dedicated to the study of animal diseases. Since 1954, the center has had the goal of protecting America's livestock from animal diseases. During the Cold War a secret biological weapons program targeting livestock was conducted at the site. This program has been the subject of controversy. The center is located on Plum Island near the northeast coast of Long Island.


We Are Going To Need A Bigger Boat

The movie “Jaws” was set in the fictional summer resort town of Amity, MA. But the main character, Captain Quint, was based on shark fisherman and conservationist Frank Mundus of Montauk.


Lynbrook USA

The original name of Lynbrook was Pearsall’s Corner. It became known as Lynbrook in 1894. The name "Lynbrook" is derived by dividing "Brooklyn" into its syllables and transposing them, a tribute to the original home of many of the town's turn-of-the-century residents. It is referred to “Lynbrook USA” because it is the only town in the USA with that name.


Leave It To …

Beavers were once common on Long Island until they were hunted to extinction on the island 100 years ago. Until one was spotted taking up resident in East Hampton in 2007.


Lady of the Lake

Lake Ronkonkoma is Long Island’s largest freshwater lake. According to legend, it is also cursed. Supposedly, Ronkonkoma was the name of an Indian princess who fell in love with a white settler who lived near the lake. Their union was forbidden by her father. Eventually the princess snapped and committed suicide as did her lover. It is said the princess still haunts the lake and claims at least one life a year.


amazing long island - lisuglisug.org/presentations/amazing_long_island.pdf• francis ford coppola...

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