A Once-Restricted Island That Is Now Open For Visitors Showcases A Hidden, Somber Side Of New York City

Anyone from New York City can tell you that space there is always at a premium, and yet, for over 150 years, there's been an island similar in size to Roosevelt Island, the quiet escape connected by a scenic tramway, that was kept mostly off-limits. Many may not realize that NYC has many serene, hidden islands, often easy to get to by bus or subway. Hart Island, though, was intentionally isolated — it's a place that's tied to many sensitive periods of the city's history, and much of it was overgrown and neglected up until being transferred to management under the NYC Parks Department in 2021.

A Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric hospital, a quarantine site for yellow fever, and Navy barracks are just some of the roles Hart Island has played, but it's most famously known as the largest public cemetery in the U.S., with over 1 million buried people, according to a Parks Department press release. The island opened to the public for free scheduled tours in November 2023, giving New Yorkers the chance to connect with the city's past and out-of-town visitors to have a reflective, engaging experience. In the press release, NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said, "We're thrilled to begin offering free public history tours of Hart Island, allowing New Yorkers an intimate look at the island for the very first time. Our Urban Park Rangers have created informative and reflective programming that highlights the island's important role in New York City history."

Nicknamed the "Island of Lost Souls," Hart Island has served as the resting place for the poor, unclaimed, or unknown since 1869. Before then, the island was a prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War and even served as a gathering place for underground boxing matches. In the 1980s and '90s, it became one of the biggest mass burial sites of victims of the AIDS epidemic, as funeral homes declined to handle the bodies. Later, many victims of the COVID-19 pandemic were buried here when the city became overwhelmed with bodies. The public cemetery "reflects the lives of people who live on the margins — the homeless, the sickly, the neglected, the forgotten and overworked," Justin von Bujdoss, its chaplain, told Time.

Hart Island was New York City's shamefaced secret for so long, its bodies belonging to those unable to afford marked graves or spurned by guardians and institutions. "For decades, Hart Island has been misunderstood and stigmatized," Sue Donoghue told The New York Times. Opening the island to the public in 2023 marked a meaningful turning point for both visitors and the city, symbolizing a shift away from hiding the past and towards reflecting on it. Tours lead you to an old chapel (one of the few buildings still standing on the island), a monument at the former Civil War barracks, and numerous burial sites, with unadorned white markers to designate mass graves.

Tours of Hart Island are free and conducted by NYC Parks, but they're still pretty limited, only offered two times per month. You need to register in advance by completing an online form and entering a lottery, which opens about two weeks before the scheduled tour date. When you pick a date to register for, it will specify whether the tour is for the north or south side of the island — the north tour covers a peace monument, a former underground missile silo, and the site of a demolished school along with burial sites, while the south tour covers remnants of old institutions and the area used for AIDS-related burials.

Unlike some of the best spooky ghost tours around America, the Hart Island tours are more solemn than spooky. They're meant to allow for public mourning and remembrance. "It's still hallowed ground and deserves respect and dignity," said Elsie Soto, whose father is buried on the island, in The New York Times. While the graves are unmarked, the Hart Island Project is working to recognize the people buried on the island in a free, online database, which you can access while visiting to learn more about the people interred.

If you get selected for a tour, the only way to access Hart Island is by a free ferry that departs from City Island in the Bronx. City Island is easy to get to, about 40 to 50 minutes if you're driving from Midtown and 20 minutes driving from LaGuardia Airport. You can also get to City Island via public transit using a combination of subway and bus rides.