Haunting vid goes inside abandoned ‘Hell Gate’ island where lepers & ‘Typhoid Mary’ were held off shore of metropolis
A NEW haunting video goes inside the abandoned “Hell Gate” island where lepers and the notorious “Typhoid Mary” were held.
The spooky island on New York’s East River has been deserted since the 1960s – but over the years has intrigued history buffs, ghost hunters and urban explorers.
The quarantine hospital on North Brother Island, which was active from 1885, was home to lepers and the infamous patient Typhoid Mary.
Irish-born Mary Mallon was the first ever diagnosed asymptomatic carrier of a disease and infected scores of people throughout her life working as a cook.
Three people are confirmed to have died as a result of the typhoid fever she passed on to them.
But many more are thought to have been killed as she always moved on and often changed her name after starting another outbreak.
She was eventually forcibly quarantined on North Brother Island in 1915 and kept isolated until her death 23 years later.
A new tuberculosis wing was built in 1941, but became obsolete just two years later when a cure was discovered.
YouTuber Two Feet Outdoors took a staggering journey to North Brother Island, situated in the Hell Gate, via kayak.
After getting out the watercraft, he approaches the shore and is greeted by huge walls of desolated redbrick buildings coated in greenery.
But he comes into some difficulty to get through as he explains there’s “so much ivy everywhere.”
He said: “There is no easy way to explore this island and these buildings. It’s a straight up bushwhack just about the entire time.”
Footage shows the abandoned buildings with the insides in complete ruin.
Paint is seen peeling off the walls, with windows smashed in and ceiling rafters close to collapse – not only from it being isolated for so long, but vandals too.
The camera also pans to what looks to be an old auditorium with rows of rotting seats and a completely wrecked stage.
Another shows a toilet with the words “Teachers Men” captured on the door as it’s still frozen in time.
The basement on one of the buildings is completely flooded, so the YouTuber couldn’t venture down and explore.
After World War II, the grounds were used for housing for returned servicemen. Later, the island was reinvented as a heroin rehab centre.
At its peak, 40 buildings graced the island, including dormitories, a church, a lighthouse and a morgue.
But in 1963, the hospital was shuttered and the island abandoned by the city. It’s languished largely untouched since.
North Brother can only be reached by boat and only 26 buildings remain.
The half-collapsed structures are eerie, with tree branches growing through windows and rooms bare minus some rotting furniture.
Haunting images show what the creepy hospital looks like now, after many years of disrepair.
Rotting chairs can be seen lined up in a large hall and an empty rusting bedframe.
Isolated on an island and relatively free from vandals, the buildings have been left to decay naturally.
Pictures show nature beginning to reclaim the island as vines grow over and through some of the buildings that may have housed Typhoid Mary.
And books can be seen scattered across the floor mixed with rotting leaves in what may once have been the library.
The Two Feet Outdoors’ video accumulated tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments from other urban explorers.
One comment read: “Okay, that was the creepiest video ever!”
Another said: “That building with the flooded basement can EASILY be the site of a horror movie.”
And: “This island has always fascinated me along with other obscure and lesser known places around the world.”
It’s important to note that to visit the island, a permit must be secured in advance.
As per NYC Parks: “We do not visit and do not permit visits to the island between March 21 and September 21, due to shorebird breeding season.
“The best time to visit North Brother Island is during the fall, before winter weather begins and conditions are challenging.”