North and South Brother Islands Map

Description: This map shows islands, piers, trails, houses, buildings, cafes, lighthouses, and parks on North and South Brother Islands.

Description: This map shows piers, trails, houses, buildings, cafe, and lighthouses on North Brother Island.

Description: This map shows islands, beach, and park on South Brother Island.

Description: This map shows where North and South Brother Islands is located on the New York City Map.

Description: This map shows where North and South Brother Islands is located on the New York State Map.

North Brother Island and South Brother Island are two small islands in the East River between the mainland Bronx and Rikers Island. Both are part of the Bronx. North Brother Island covers about 20 acres (8 ha), and South Brother Island about 7 acres (3 ha).

In 1885, Riverside Hospital moved to North Brother Island. It was used to isolate patients with smallpox and other infectious diseases. Its best-known patient was Mary Mallon, known as "Typhoid Mary", an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. She was confined on the island from 1907 to 1910, and again from 1915 until her death in 1938. On June 15, 1904, the burning excursion steamer General Slocum was run aground near the island, and more than 1,000 people died in the disaster.

After World War II, the island's buildings housed veterans and their families. From the 1950s until 1963 it was a drug rehabilitation center for adolescents, after which the island was abandoned. North Brother Island is now a bird sanctuary managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and public access is prohibited.

South Brother Island was privately owned for most of its history. Brewer Jacob Ruppert, owner of the New York Yankees, kept a summer house there that burned down in 1909. The city acquired the island in 2007, and it is also maintained as wildlife habitat.