Occupying 131 acres in Long Island Sound, off the Bronx shore, Hart Island is the largest public burial ground in the United States. It has been New York City’s public burial ground for more than 150 years, and it is the final resting place of more than 1 million individuals — mostly bodies that went
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is being pressed into service as a temporary resting place for deceased New Yorkers whose internments have been postponed.
According to the city’s Department of Correction, which has been running burial operations on the island since 1869, employing inmates at the nearby Rikers Island jail, burials on the island have increased to about 24 a day, up from three or four before the pandemic hit. The process used to bury the unclaimed on Hart Island is not new. It just has become more visible during this crisis, since the city has shortened the length of time it will hold unclaimed remains in morgues, from 30 days to 14.
De Blasio took to Twitter last week to respond to concerns over possible mass burials on the island due to the pandemic. Melinda Hunt, founder and director of Hart Island Project, a nonprofit organization that has supported families of the buried and advocated for public access to the site, told Yahoo News that people should not fear this process.
“It’s really a wide open, natural landscape, full of deer and birds. It’s really a beautiful and peaceful location,” said Hunt.
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