Remembering Hog Island
Map shows present day Barnum Island, once part of Hog Island
Is Rockaway next? The question was raised a few years ago, when many speculated that if another hurricane were to hit, like the one that took out Hog Island, then the damages would be enormous. In that same article, the 1893 hurricane and Hog Island story is told... which is really rather terrifyingly amazing. Read about how the hurricane put Canal Street underwater and tore trees up in Central Park, after the jump.
"On the night of August 23, 1893, a terrifying Category 2 hurricane did strike New York City. It hit land in the marsh that is JFK Airport today and began the erosion of the low-lying resort... All six front-page columns of the August 25, 1893, New York Times were dedicated to the 'unexampled fury' of the 'West Indian monster.'Everything below Canal Street was under water. In Central Park, hundreds of trees were uprooted...The brand-new Metropolitan Life building on Madison Avenue was severely damaged when a heavy-iron fence was torn away by the wind, plunging 10 stories and crashing through a stained-glass dome.
A 30-foot storm surge swept across southern Brooklyn and Queens, destroying virtually every man-made structure in its path. In Brooklyn, at Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues, the water in the street was up to a man's waist,' and residents used ladders to get in and out of their houses. Most of the boats moored at the Williamsburg Yacht Club were 'sunk, driven ashore or demolished.' The East River rose 'until it swept over the sea wall in the Astoria district and submerged the Boulevard.' At Coney Island, 30-foot waves swept 200 yards inland, destroying nearly every man-made structure in its path and wrecking the elevated railroad."
