DID YOU KNOW

Did You Know?

A Bit of History about Long Island NY

Although I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, I spent most of my adult life living on Long Island, New York. I moved there after I was married and that’s where my sons were born and raised.

Yet, living on Long Island for so many years, there is so much I never knew about that part of Long Island that contains so much history.

Let me share some with you.

Located in Montauk is the birth place of the American cowboy. The site had once been the oldest cattle ranch in America, being built around 1658.

Mastic had been the home of William Floyd, who’d been one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

In the 17th century, people built fires to identify coastlines for the ships in the ocean. Once such area that still exists is Fire Island, so named because of the many fires built there.

The first two settlements by the Dutch were Southold and Southampton in 1640.

In 1925, Long Island sent about 56,000 ducks to market in NYC – just in time for the Feast of the Tabernacles (A Jewish Holiday). The ducks of the best quality were sold for 32-cents a pound.

The Lighthouse at Montauk was the first shoreline beacon built in 1796. It was commissioned by George Washington to enable the ships coming in from Europe to identify the Atlantic Ocean from the Long Island Sound. The Lighthouse still exists to this day.

Inventor Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio transmission in 1901 from Fire Island Avenue which is located in Babylon.

It was in 1927 that Charles Lindberg began his solo flight across the Atlantic. He took off from Roosevelt Field.

America’s first supermarket started on Long Island. It was in 1930, in Levittown. The supermarket was King Kullen. Levittown was also the first suburb in the United States, and was built on Long Island in 1947.

The Luna Excursion Module, (called the LEM – pronounced lem) began its life in 1969 by the Grumman Corporation.

Long Island is the largest island among the 50 contiguous states. As of this writing, Long Island is still believed to have the only windmill and watermill that are still in operation. They are located in the Water Mill community.

Richard Nixon’s dog Checkers is buried in Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery located in Wantaugh.

Before 1883, the only way to get from Brooklyn to Long Island was by boat. That changed in 1883 when the Brooklyn Bridge was completed and created a more direct, and faster route between the two areas.

Long Island was not created by man. It was formed by glaciers that melted, creating a clear difference between the hilly north shore and the flatlands of the south shore of Long Island.

Long Island has a larger population than Jamaica and Ireland.

If Long Island was its own state, its population would make it the largest state (by population) ranking it at number 12 with full-time residents. This does not consider those who vacation in the area.

Long Island can safely boast to having the largest industrial park in the US. It’s located in Hauppauge with more than 1,300 companies and well over 55,000 people.

If you combine Nassau and Suffolk counties, nearly 180 emergency agencies possess more fire trucks than New York City and Los Angeles combined.

At one time, there had been more than 250 family-owned dairies in Suffolk County. As the county began to grow with permanent residents, that number changed dramatically.

Suffolk county is still the leading agricultural county in the entire state of New York.

Long Island can also boast that it sells more 7-Eleven coffee than all of California.

At one time, in the 1840s, there were, located in Suffolk County, well over 5,000 horses and mules, over 22,000 head of cattle, more than 46,000 sheep, and about 20,500 pigs. The human population consisted of about 51 doctors and 12 attorneys.

Somewhere in the late 1800s, Teddy Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” were quarantined and convalesced at Camp Wikoff which is in Montauk. The men suffered from battle wounds, yellow fever, malaria, and typhoid.

In 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, an airport was built in Islip Township for military purposes. It took about one year to build, and the cost is estimated to be around $1.5 million. At that time, it was named the Islip Airport but later, renamed to the MacArthur airport, so named after General Douglas MacArthur. After the war, the government felt they no longer needed the airport. Hence, the Town of Islip declared ownership of it.

In 1693, Long Island had been called The Island of Nassau. While it was favored by many, the name eventually fell through the cracks of time.

Up until 2018, a restaurant that was built in 1870, still existed. Actually, it still does but in 2018, it was sold and became an Historical Landmark.

Combining the counties of Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island can boast the highest level of volunteerism in the world.

The movie JAWS was based on a shark fisherman from Montauk when he caught a 4,500-pound great white in 1964.

There is a tree-lined section of the Southern State parkway, in West Babylon that used to be the driveway to the Belmont family’s historic mansion. It was built in 1925.

While I know there is much more than what I’ve written here, I’m going to include a few more tidbits, naming some celebrities and where they’re from:

The Baldwin’s (no, they are NOT from Baldwin NY). They are from Massapequa.

Edie Falco, Northport

Natalie Portman, Jericho

Tony Danza, Malverne

Billy Crystal, Long Beach

Jerry Steinfeld (Massapequa)

Eddie Murphy and Howard Stern are from Roosevelt

Rodney Dangerfield is from Babylon

Billy Joel is from Hicksville

LL Cool J, BayShore

Mariah Carey, Huntington

There are many more, but I only used the more familiar names.

Now, if you’ve a mind and the time to tour Long Island, you’ll be able to look at an area and think, “Hey, I know something about that place.”