New York

Soccer field under the Queensboro Bridge on Roosevelt Island . Roosevelt Island is located in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. The small island is 3 miles long and 240 meters at its widest. Roosevelt Island is under the political jurisdiction of Manhattan , but the police , health and fire correspond to Queens. Originally the island was named by the Algonquin Indians as Minnahannock , until in 1637 the island was purchased by the Dutch governor Wouton van Twiller and renamed as " Varckens Eylandt " ( Island of Pigs ) . During the nineteenth century in the island a smallpox hospital , a prison , an asylum for the poor and a madhouse , renaming the island in 1921 as Welfare Island ( Welfare Island ) was constructed . In 1968, New York Mayor John Lindsay declared as Welfare Island residential area and a year later the Urban Development Corporation of the State of New York signed a 99-year lease with the city of New York to develop the island using a plan teacher designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee . The island was renamed Roosevelt Island in 1973 and the first residential complex was opened in 1975. Roosevelt Island currently has a population of 9,500 inhabitants , with shops , restaurants and a sports complex with a football field , swimming pools , basketball courts , tennis courts and a baseball field . To access the island from Manhattan you can take the F train line or the Roosevelt Island Tramway, the only intercity funicular country , installed in 1976. The funicular starts from 59th Street in Manhattan and offers spectacular views in the four minutes it takes to make the journey . Among the places you can visit are the Chapel of the Good Shepherd built in 1888 , the lighthouse at the northern end of the island built in 1872 and designed by James Renwick, Jr. , the same architect who designed the Cathedral of St. Patrick Manhattan , south of the island are the ruins of the smallpox hospital for smallpox hospital, built in 1875 and d