New York's Notorious Hart Island to Open as a Public Park

New York's Hart Island, off the coast of the Bronx, contains the nation's largest cemetery on its 131 acres. But this is no Forest Lawn. This is New York's potter's field, where unidentified or unclaimed bodies are buried, in trenches three coffins deep. The practice has been going on since 1869, and it is estimated that more than a million people are now buried there. Run by the Department of Corrections, the island has been off-limits to the general public for years, except for supervised memorial services twice a month. But that is about to change.

In part by the efforts of the Hart Island Project, the administration of the island was transferred from the Corrections Department to the city's Parks Department. They've been busy cleaning up the island and dismantling some old buildings. Later this year, guided tours will begin as a pilot program, leading to eventual opening of Hart Island as a park. That doesn't mean it will no longer be a potter's field. Burials of New York's more unfortunate deceased will continue. Read about the new park on Hart Island at Smithsonian. -via Fark