Subtitles section Play video
-
Yep, that's me.
-
You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.
-
To see how I got here, we first have to talk about islands.
-
You may not realize it, but New York City is full of them.
-
Manhattan itself is technically just one 13.4-mile-long island.
-
You've also got Governors Island,
-
Liberty Island,
-
as well as Staten Island.
-
But there's one island in New York that you may not know about,
-
and no, it's not the tiki bar Jade Island,
-
which is fabulous by the way — do yourself a favor and try the pu pu platter.
-
It's called U Thant Island.
-
And it's one island in New York that nobody is allowed to visit.
-
It sits in the East River, right below Roosevelt Island near the UN headquarters,
-
and for something so tiny has a pretty fascinating history.
-
In 1892, construction of an underground rail passage began
-
that was meant to connect Manhattan to Queens via a tunnel under the river.
-
Builders had to drill through the granite under water,
-
and that excavation produced excess landfill, which accumulated
-
and eventually produced a tiny mound of rocks,
-
or as we in the biz call it, an island.
-
The island was originally named Belmont Island, after August Belmont Jr.,
-
the man who financed the construction project.
-
The original tunnel is now used by the 7 Train.
-
And as for the island, minus the occasional tanker collision, up until recently has had a pretty uneventful existence.
-
Then an organization called the Peace Meditation at the United Nations,
-
a Buddhist group that followed spiritual leader,
-
prolific artist,
-
and super-ripped dude Sri Chinmoy, leased the island from the city in 1977.
-
They rechristened it U Thant Island to honor the third secretary general of the UN, a former
-
Burmese diplomat named U Thant,
-
who was a friend of Sri Chinmoy.
-
They also did some light landscaping and erected a 30-foot metal “oneness arch.”
-
But they were only allowed to visit a few times a year
-
because of the heightened security around its neighbor the United Nations.
-
All remained peaceful on U Thant until 2004, when New York City hosted the Republican National Convention.
-
A filmmaker and artist named Duke Riley decided to protest by rowing a boat out to U Thant in the middle of the night,
-
unfurling a giant glow-in-the-dark flag from the navigation tower that's on there,
-
and declaring it a sovereign nation,
-
before being apprehended by the Coast Guard.
-
So I called the New York Office of Land Management and tried to schedule a visit.
-
Hey, I wanted to call and see if it's at all possible to set up a time to go visit U Thant Island on the East River?
-
Oh, it's not.
-
At all, like, for anybody?
-
I did some checking, and he's actually right —
-
nobody is allowed to visit U Thant Island.
-
Turns out it's now a protected sanctuary for migrating birds,
-
including a colony of double-crested cormorants that nest in the “oneness arch.”
-
So you can't actually go on it, but I still wanted to get as close as I could.
-
Despite a total lack of experience and a quickly approaching thunderstorm
-
I jumped in a canoe and headed out onto the lovely East River.
-
We through the water, passing Williamsburg and Roosevelt Island,
-
until we finally saw it in all its glorious, tiny splendor.
-
To most people, it may look like just a pile of rocks in a filthy river.
-
And ... I guess it sort of is.
-
But there's also something kind of wonderful about it too.
-
Being up close to it made me realize that there's something special about U Thant.
-
Amidst the hustle and bustle and millions of people, there's this 125-year-old speck
-
of land tucked away from —
-
So I learned a thing or two about what not to do when your canoe starts tipping over.
-
And as it turns out, I sort of did make it onto U Thant Island after all.
-
Granted, it was in an effort to not drown in the East River, but I think it technically still counts.
-
I didn't die, which was good, and I'm glad I was actually able to see U Thant close up.
-
But for now, I think I might just stick to this island, which is a little bit more my speed.