50 Facts About Long Island

Long Island is a largely urbanized and densely populated island in the southeastern geographical area of the U S state of New York and part of the New York metropolitan area.

However, people in the New York metropolitan area colloquially use the term Long Island to refer exclusively to Nassau and Suffolk counties, and conversely, employ the term the City to mean Manhattan alone.

Block Long Island—which is part of Rhode Long Island—and numerous smaller islands extend further into the Atlantic.

Longest and the largest island in the contiguous United States, Long Island extends 118 miles eastward from New York Harbor to Montauk Point, with a maximum north-to-south distance of 23 miles between Long Island Sound and the Atlantic coast.

Long Island is culturally and ethnically diverse, featuring some of the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods in the world near the shorelines, as well as working-class areas in all four counties.

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Biotechnology companies and scientific research play a significant role in Long Island's economy, including research facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Stony Brook University, New York Institute of Technology, Plum Island Animal Disease Center, the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, and the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.

All of Long Island became part of the Province of New York within the Shire of York.

Long Island's family had emigrated to America in 1654 and by the time of his birth were well established and wealthy.

Long Island was a member of the Suffolk County Militia in the early conflict with Britain, attaining the rank of Major General.

Long Island's property was destroyed by the British and Tory sympathizers.

Francis Lewis from Brookhaven on Long Island was another signer of the Declaration that had his home destroyed by the British, who then imprisoned his wife.

Long Island participated in the Ticonderoga campaign and the capture of Fort Frontenac in 1758.

Long Island was made the colonel of the 5th New York in 1780 and the Tryon County militia in 1781, where he fought at Johnstown.

Long Island's colonists served both Loyalist and Patriot causes, with many prominent families divided among both sides.

Long Island was the site of Mitchel Air Force Base and was a major center of military aircraft production by companies such as Grumman and Fairchild Aircraft during World War II and for some decades afterward.

Aircraft production on Long Island extended all the way into the Space Age – Grumman was one of the major contractors that helped to build the early lunar flight and space shuttle vehicles.

Bill, and Long Island's population skyrocketed, mostly in Nassau County and western Suffolk County.

Second and third-generation children of immigrants moved out to eastern Long Island to settle in new housing developments built during the post-war boom.

Long Island has many ethnic Irish, Jews, and Italians, as well as an increasing numbers of Asians and Hispanics, reflecting later migrations.

Westernmost end of Long Island contains the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens .

However, colloquial usage of the term "Long Island" usually refers only to Nassau and Suffolk counties.

In 1985, the United States Supreme Court ruled in United States v Maine that Long Island is integrally related to the mainland enough that Long Island Sound and the western part of Block Island Sound constitute a "juridicial bay" for the purpose of determining maritime state boundaries.

Detailed geomorphological study of Long Island provides evidence of glacial history of the kame and terminal moraines of the island which were formed by the advance and retreat of two ice sheets.

Long Island temperatures vary from west to east, with the western part generally 2 to 3 degrees F warmer than the east .

Also, daytime high temperatures on the eastern part of Long Island are cooler on most occasions, due to the moderating effect of the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound.

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Long Island is one of the most densely populated regions in the United States.

Furthermore, the proportion of New York State's population residing on Long Island has been increasing, with Long Island's Census-estimated population increasing 6.

Likewise, the Long Island Koreatown originated in Flushing, Queens, and is expanding eastward along Northern Boulevard and into Nassau County.

Long Island is home to two Native American reservations, Poospatuck Reservation, and Shinnecock Reservation, both in Suffolk County.

Long Island is home to some of the wealthiest communities in the United States, including The Hamptons, on the East End of the South Shore of Suffolk County; the Gold Coast, in the vicinity of the island's North Shore, along Long Island Sound; and increasingly, the western shoreline of Brooklyn, facing Manhattan.

Long Island has played a prominent role in scientific research and in engineering.

Long Island is home to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which was directed for 35 years by James D Watson .

From about 1930 to about 1990, Long Island was considered one of the aerospace manufacturing centers of the United States, with companies such as Grumman, Republic, Fairchild, and Curtiss having their headquarters and factories on Long Island.

New York State Police patrol state parks and parkways, with the exception of the Long Island Expressway, which is an interstate patrolled by County Police.

Long Island is home to a range of higher-education institutions, both public and private.

Several colleges and universities within the State University of New York system are on Long Island, including Stony Brook University, as well as Nassau Community College and Suffolk County Community College that serve their respective counties.

Long Island contains the Webb Institute, a small naval architecture college in Glen Cove.

Music on Long Island is strongly influenced by the proximity to New York City and by the youth culture of the suburbs.

Long Island was the home of a bustling emo scene in the 2000s, with bands such as Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Straylight Run, From Autumn to Ashes and As Tall as Lions.

Famous rock bands from Long Island include The Rascals, The Ramones, Dream Theater, Blue Oyster Cult, Twisted Sister, and guitar virtuosos Donald Roeser, John Petrucci, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, as well as drummer Mike Portnoy.

Long Island has historically been a center for fishing and seafood.

Two symbols of Long Island's duck farming heritage are the Long Island Ducks minor-league baseball team and the Big Duck, a 1931 duck-shaped building that is a historic landmark and tourist attraction.

Long Island is well known for its production of alcoholic beverages.

Long Island has become a producer of diverse craft beers, with 15 microbreweries across Nassau and Suffolk counties as of 2013.

Long Island is globally known for its signature cocktail, the Long Island Iced Tea, which was purportedly invented at the popular Babylon, Oak Beach Inn nightclub in the 1970s.

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Long Island's eateries are largely a product of the region's local ethnic populations.

Long Island is home to the Long Island Ducks minor league baseball team of the Atlantic League.

Long Island has historically been a hotbed of lacrosse at the youth and college level, which made way for a Major League Lacrosse team in 2001, the Long Island Lizards.

Long Island has a wide variety of golf courses found all over the island.

Long Island is home to numerous famous athletes, including Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Julius Erving, John Mackey, Whitey Ford, Nick Drahos, and Carl Yastrzemski.