Anna M. Kross Center

Rikers Island is a 413.17-acre (167.20-hectare) island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under 100 acres (40 ha) in size, but has since grown to more than 400 acres (160 ha). The first stages of expansion were accomplished largely by convict labor hauling in ashes for landfill. The island is politically part of the Bronx, although bridge access is from Queens. It is part of Queens Community Board 1 and uses an East Elmhurst, Queens, ZIP Code of 11370 for mail.The island is home to one of the world's largest correctional institutions and mental institutions, and has been described as New York's most well-known jail. The complex, operated by the New York City Department of Correction, has a budget of $860 million a year, a staff of 9,000 officers and 1,500 civilians managing 100,000 admissions per year and an average daily population of 10,000 inmates. The majority (85%) of detainees are pretrial defendants, either held on bail or remanded in custody. The rest of the population have been convicted and are serving short sentences. According to a 2021 analysis by New York City Comptroller, it costs the city approximately $556,539 to detain one person for one year at Rikers Island.Rikers Island has a reputation for violence, both abuse and neglect of inmates, attracting increased press and judicial scrutiny that has resulted in numerous rulings against the New York City government, and numerous assaults by inmates on uniformed and civilian staff, resulting in often serious injuries. In May 2013, Rikers Island ranked as one of the ten worst correctional facilities in the United States, based on reporting in Mother Jones magazine. Violence on Rikers Island has been increasing in recent years. In 2015, there were 9,424 assaults, the highest number in five years.In a 2017 report titled "Smaller, Safer, Fairer: A roadmap to closing Rikers Island", former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his intention to close the jail complex at Rikers Island within ten years, if the city's crime rates stay low and the population at Rikers were reduced from 10,000 to 5,000. In February 2018, a state oversight commission suggested that New York state might move to close the facility before that deadline. In October 2019, the New York City Council voted to close down the facility by 2026.

Northeast Airlines Flight 823 was a scheduled flight from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Miami International Airport, Florida, which crashed shortly after takeoff on February 1, 1957. The aircraft operating the service was a Douglas DC-6 four-engined propeller airliner, registration N34954, which entered service in 1955.

Rikers Island Bridge (officially named Francis R. Buono Memorial Bridge) is a girder bridge that connects Rikers Island in the borough of the Bronx with the borough of Queens in New York City. The bridge begins in the Steinway neighborhood of Queens near the intersection of Hazen Street and 19th Avenue and continues to the south side of Rikers Island.

The Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center (VCBC), also known as the Vernon C. Bain Maritime Facility and under the nickname "The Boat", is an 800-bed jail barge used to hold inmates for the New York City Department of Corrections. The barge is anchored off the Bronx's southern shore, across from Rikers Island, near Hunts Point. It was built for $161 million at Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, along the Mississippi River near New Orleans, and brought to New York in 1992 to reduce overcrowding in the island's land-bound buildings for a lower price. Nicknamed "The Boat" by prison staff and inmates, it is designed to handle inmates from medium- to maximum-security in 16 dormitories and 100 cells. Currently the only barge in use, the Vernon C. Bain Center is the third prison barge that the New York Department of Corrections has used. In its history, the prison has served traditional inmates, juvenile inmates and is currently used as a holding and temporary processing center. The added security of the prison being on water has prevented at least four attempted escapes. The barge is named in memorial for warden Vernon C. Bain, who died in an automobile accident. In 2014, the prison barge was named the world's largest prison barge in operation by Guinness World Records.

North and South Brother Islands are a pair of small islands located in New York City's East River between the mainland Bronx and Rikers Island. North Brother Island was once the site of the Riverside Hospital for quarantinable diseases but is now uninhabited. The islands had long been privately owned, but were purchased by the federal government in 2007 with some funding from The Trust for Public Land and others; both were given to the City. They were then designated as sanctuaries for water birds.According to the New York City Parks Department, which oversees the islands, North Brother Island has about 20 acres (8 hectares) of land, and South Brother Island about 6 acres (2.4 ha).Public access is prohibited but permission is occasionally given to researchers and journalists; a NYC Parks staff member escorts all such visitors.

Barretto Point Park is a waterfront public park on the East River located in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx. New York City. Its namesake is Francis J. Barretto, a 19th-century merchant and State Assemblyman who lived in the area.

Bowery Bay is a bay off the East River in New York City. It is located near the Steinway neighborhood of Queens and is bordered on the west by the Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plant and on the south and east by LaGuardia Airport.Before the construction of LaGuardia Airport in the late 1920s, the shoreline of Bowery Bay and Flushing Bay, originally called Bowery Bay Beach and later North Beach, was a popular seaside resort. North Beach was the site of a popular amusement park from 1895 to 1915 and was known as "the Coney Island of Queens".The Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport was originally constructed along the south end of Bowery Bay to accommodate flying boats. From 1940 until 1945, 'Clippers' operated by Pan American Airways provided trans-Atlantic flights from Bowery Bay to Europe. The eastern edge of Bowery Bay is currently bordered by LaGuardia Airport's general aviation terminal. The western edge of Bowery Bay is the site of the Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plant, a wastewater treatment plant operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. The plant opened in 1939 and is capable of treating 150 million US gallons (570,000 m3) of sewage per day from northwestern Queens. Luyster Creek, a subterranean river, empties into Bowery Bay near the water plant.The Rikers Island Bridge spans the northern portion of Bowery Bay.

Berrien's Island was an island in the East River in New York City, off the northern shore of Astoria in Queens. It takes its name from Cornelius Jansen Berrien, who purchased it from Timothy Wood in 1727. During the 20th century, Berrien's Island became connected to the larger Long Island, on which most of Queens is situated. The site is now occupied by a Consolidated Edison plant.

North Brother Island Light was a lighthouse located on North Brother Island in the East River in New York City. The lighthouse was at the southern tip of the island. Before the lighthouse was erected, the island was uninhabited and saw no formal use. The tower utilized an occulting light which lit for five seconds and eclipsed for five seconds. It stood 47 feet above the water.

The Fulton Fish Market is a fish market in Hunts Point, a section of the New York City borough of the Bronx, in New York, United States. It was originally a wing of the Fulton Market, established in 1822 to sell a variety of foodstuffs and produce. In November 2005, the Fish Market relocated to a new facility in Hunts Point in the Bronx, from its historic location near the Brooklyn Bridge along the East River waterfront at and above Fulton Street in the Financial District, Lower Manhattan. During much of its 183-year tenure at the original site, the Fulton Fish Market was the most important wholesale East Coast fish market in the United States. Opened in 1822, it was the destination of fishing boats from across the Atlantic Ocean. By the 1950s, most of the Market's fish were trucked in rather than offloaded from the docks. The wholesalers at the Market then sold it to restaurateurs and retailers who purchased fresh fish of every imaginable variety.Prices at the Fulton Fish Market were tracked and reported by the United States government. In its original location, it was one of the last, and most significant, of the great wholesale food markets of New York. It survived major fires in 1835, 1845, 1918, and 1995. In its new location in the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, it handles millions of pounds of seafood daily, with annual sales exceeding $1 billion, and is second in size only to Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market.

USAir Flight 5050 was a passenger flight that crashed on takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. As the plane took off from LaGuardia's runway 31, the plane drifted to the left. After hearing a loud bang, the pilots attempted to abort the takeoff, but were unable to stop the plane short of the end of the runway. The plane continued past the end of the runway and plunged into Bowery Bay. Two passengers were killed.

The Steinway Mansion (also the Benjamin Pike, Jr. House) is a home on a one-acre hilltop in the Astoria section of Queens, New York City. It was built in 1858, originally on 440 acres (1.8 km2) on the Long Island Sound, by Benjamin Pike Jr., born in 1809, a noted manufacturer of scientific instruments located in lower Manhattan. After his death in 1864, his widow sold the mansion to William Steinway of Steinway & Sons in 1870. Jack Halberian purchased the Mansion in 1926 and upon his death in 1976, his son Michael Halberian began an extensive restoration. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a landmark in 1966, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The mansion was placed on sale after Michael Halberian's death in 2010. After years on the market and numerous price reductions the property was purchased by Sal Lucchese and Phil Loria in 2014 under the company The L Group. Parts of the surrounding land were then developed into commercial warehouses, leaving the mansion untouched on its remaining property. At this point being almost 150 years old, the mansion was deteriorating quickly, with parts of the home beginning to fall apart. The mansion's owners began a massive restoration to return the mansion to its original glory. After that the grand balcony that had collapsed nearly a century earlier was perfectly reconstructed using old images of the home. All interior molding was then repaired and repainted, along with the decaying floorboards and walls. Other general renovations have taken place over time that would return the mansion to its 19th-century style. To pay homage to the Pike family and the Steinways, the mansion was decorated with a grand Steinway piano and numerous original 19th-century scientific instruments manufactured by the Pike company.