That one time when we went haunting Roosevelt Island

You would think that it's not all that difficult to come up with new activities in a city like this. But the choices can be a bit overwhelming and although I love being a shameless tourist and taking pictures of EVERYTHING I come across it's not exactly a fun idea to join the tourist-stampedes during the weekends and run through the standard sightseeing mill. So I've been trying to find things that are a bit more off the beaten track and appeal to our own interests instead of the masses. One of the interests Bram and I share are abandoned buildings, ruins, stuff like that. (okay, okay, I'll admit I'm the greater derelict-enthusiast of the both of us, but Bram doesn't mind indulging me.) 

Completely by coincidence I came across an article describing New York's most accessible ruins. One of those happened to be fairly close to us. It's an abandoned smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island. That alone sounded more than eerie enogh to pique my interest!

Wikipedia says the following about the building;

The Smallpox Hospital, sometimes referred to as the Renwick Smallpox Hospital and later the Maternity and Charity Hospital Training School, is an abandoned hospital located on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan, New York City. Originally designed by architect James Renwick, Jr., the 100-bed hospital opened in 1856, when the area was known as Blackwell's Island.

A century after it opened, the hospital was closed, and the building eventually fell into disrepair. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and designated a New York City Landmark four years later, the only ruin in the city with that designation. After the completion of an ongoing $4.5 million stabilization project, the Smallpox Hospital ruins will be open to the public.

We both wanted to see it so last sunday we walked all the way to 60th street to go to Roosevelt Island. It's one of the islands in the East River (which, I understand, is not technically a river, but rather a salt water tidal strait that changes its flow direction depending on the ebb and flow of the sea. The more you know, right?)

This was the first part of the route, you can see Roosevelt Island on the left and Queensboro Bridge in the distance.

It was a gloomy day, cloudy, warm and extremely humid, but we didn't let that deter us. We thought we'd be able to get to the island using the Queensboro bridge, but alas, just when the bridge's incline turned to a decline we realized we had to walk back because we could only get off the bridge after we had crossed the entire span of the East River, meaning we would end up in Queens (Jeez, I wonder why they called it the Queensboro bridge! *facepalm* )

The view was pretty spectacular though!

Turns out, this would be the quickest way to get there. Yeah, that looks completely safe and not scary at ALL!

Bram finally managed to convince me to take the Roosevelt Island Tram, which 

went a bit higher than I would normally be comfortable with.. But my feet hurt and I wanted to get to the island already so I agreed. And squeezed Bram's arm pretty hard during the trip there...

But we didn't crash, burn, plummet or stall, nothing exploded and there were no epic battles between superheroes and villains while we were in there! Only a few instances of cute little kids performing their patented high-pitched banshee screeches later we finally set foot on solid ground again and we could seek out this old ruin at last! It is currently surrounded by a sturdy fence, and seeing the state of the building that made perfect sense. There's not much in the way of structural intergrity left there, and people are idiots, so without the fencing it would be an accident waiting to happen!

More info for all you history buffs out there. I'm looking at you, dad!

Doesn't look that creepy from a distance...

Up close view of the hospital, it's immediately obvious that this must have been a gorgeous building in its hey-day!

What was probably once the front entrance

The fence is real eerie too!

Other side of the building. Reconstructions are underway, so we'll have to check it out again in a while!

Soooo.... Ruins of Lordaeron anyone?

Unfortunately due to renovations we weren't able to walk all the way around the building, but I hope to come back here when the work is complete, there are plans of opening this building to the public and I wouldn't miss it for the world!

The rest of Roosevelt Island wasn't all that interesting, there was a park that we explored and the view of Manhattan was pretty good, so here are some more pictures of that.

View of Manhattan and the Chrysler Building

He's always complaining that I upload all my pictures before he even gets a chance. It's been almost a week Bram! A WEEK!!!

Yeah, you heard me.

Oh hey, look at the pretty skyline with the sun and everything!

Wait a second.. I know that last name!!!

We properly saluted the Big Giant Head. Then my husband decided to get frisky with it.

I prefer Coke, but the sign is pretty neat.

Now, there's something seriously spooky I need to tell you... As I was writing this post I decided to look up more info on Renwick Hospital, you know, to provide you with a little more background. That's when I learned that it is supposedly the most haunted place in NYC. Some would even argue it's the most haunted place on the planet! Now I know that there are a lot of instances where people take pictures of places with high paranormal activity and don't notice anything strange, but once they get home and look at their pics they suddenly spot supernatural apparitions that weren't present while they were taking the pictures... Now, I honestly don't even believe in all that stuff, but after learning about the building's haunted status I decided to take a closer look at the pictures I made, and I couldn't believe what I saw! In at least two of the pictures you can see actual ghosts! There is absolutely no denying it, they fit all the classic criteria and I swear I did't notice them when I was taking the pictures. Look for yourself, see if you can spot them!

*shiver*

If you're as creeped out as I am, here's a little something to soothe your mind. I posted this video on facebook as well, but facebook obviously thinks HD stands for "Hardly Discernible". So here's a better quality video of the legendary squirrel chilling on a trash bin. Awwww, just look at the cute little bugger. LOOK AT HIM!!!