Long Island is known for a great many things but we put together this list of 10 crazy things that sound bonkers but are absolutely true.
The Bill For the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant is Still Not Paid Off
The original cost of the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was estimated to be about $65 million and LILCO estimated that the plant would be producing power by 1973. They were a little off. The plant’s total bill came in at a whopping $5.5 billion and it never generated any power for Long Island. The debt on the plant is still not paid and officials expect the remaining $1 billion to be paid off by 2033.
Read more about Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant.
Singer David Crosby is Related to William Floyd, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Apparently, William Floyd is a great (many greats) grandfather of legendary singer/songwriter and folk rock pioneer David Crosby. He was a member of not one but two of the world’s greatest bands of the 1960s: The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.
The Idea of a Bridge to Connecticut Pre-dates the LIE, Dates Back to 1938
In 1938, U.S. Senator from New York, Royal Copeland, floated the idea of an 18-mile bridge from Orient Point, New York, to Connecticut or Rhode Island. Even before we started building the Long island Expressway.
Read more about the bridge to Connecticut.
Long Island is Not An Island (Legally)
Yep. In 1985, the Supreme Court decided unanimously that Long Island is not an island at all but a peninsula. The case is called United States v. Maine, and it had to do with who controls the Long Island and Block Island Sounds. If Long Island was an island, it was argued, then the federal government controlled the waters. If it was a peninsula, then the states owned the rights.
There Were No Streetlights on the LIE Until 1981
Believe it or not, the LIE only started getting street lights in 1981. The lighting project was estimated to cost $6.1 million when it was conceived. The Federal Government provided 75% of the cost of the installation; the state provided 25%. Nassau and Suffolk County paid the electric bill. Nassau’s bill was estimated at $58,000 a year in 1978. Suffolk's bill in 1978 was estimated to be $90,000 a year. By 1981, energy costs doubled.
Long Island Was a Hotbed For Rum Runners During Prohibition Providing Most of the Illicit Liquor to NYC
Because of its miles of shoreline and proximity to New York City, Long Island became a significant part of booze smuggling during prohibition. Local baymen, with their knowledge of the waterways, became an important part of the network of rum runners. All sorts of vessels joined in transporting foreign liquor to Long Island’s South Shore. The vessels became known as Rum Row. Since the vessels were registered in foreign countries the Coast Guard was initially helpless to enforce the law against the rumrunners.
Suffolk County District Attorney Alexander Blue is quoted as saying in the 1920s: “It is a recognized fact that the landing of liquor on the shore of Suffolk County has added materially in keeping New York City wet.”
Read more Long Island during Prohibition.
The Man Who Designed Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Lab Also Designed the Washington Square Arch in NYC; He Was Killed By the Jealous Husband of His Underaged Lover
Why no one has adapted this story as a novel or movie is a mystery. Architect Stanford White designed the laboratory on Tesla’s property and also the iconic Washington Square Arch. White was involved in an affair with teenaged actress Evelyn Nesbit, who was underaged and possibly drugged and raped by White. He was murdered by Harry Kendall Thaw, son of a Pittsburgh coal and railroad baron, and Nesbit’s husband who found out about the affair. His murder trial became known as the “Trial of the century.”
Read more facts about Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Lab and Tower.
Hurricane Gloria Killed the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant and LILCo
LILCo’s lackluster and much criticized response to Hurricane Gloria helped to convince people that the power company could not effectively handle a disaster and helped hasten the demise of the Shoreham nuclear power plant. The state of Long Island electrical grid and the utility’s response (they wanted to charge customers the $40 million bill to repair service because they said they did not have hurricane insurance) prompted the state to form the Long Island Power Authority.
Read more about Hurricane Gloria.
The First Video Game Ever Was Invented at Brookhaven National Lab
Before Atari or Nintendo, there was “Tennis for Two,” which may have been the first video game ever created, BNL scientists built the pioneering system to entertain visitors to the Lab in 1958.
There Are Six Plaques That Say “Made in Bethpage, New York” On The Moon
Thomas J. Kelly is credited as the Grumman engineer who led the team that designed and built the Lunar Module that landed our astronauts on the moon. Kelly was called the ''father of the lunar module'' by NASA. He is quoted as saying, “Remember, there are six descent stages today sitting on the moon... with a ‘Made in Bethpage, New York’ nameplate on them. And that’s something that thousands of Grummanites take great pride in." He wrote a book about it called “Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module.”