Hart Island (Island of the Dead)

Hart Island has been New York City's public cemetary since 1869, where unidentified and unwanted corpses are buried (a sort of "Potter's Field"). Over 750,000 bodies are buried here, and more than 2,000 more are added each year (over half are infants and stillborns). The site is also used to dispose of amputated limbs.

Through the years, Hart Island has had an extremely varied history of other uses (most of them socially negative):

• Prison for captured Confederate Prisoners.
• Isolation for epidemics and other diseases.
• Insane asylum.
• Housing for delinquent boys and old male prisoners.
• Drug rehabilitation.
• The island was part of the Cold War's Nike missile program (the silos are clearly visible at the top of the island -- also note the large white monument to the right of the silos for the dead).
• The 2000 film Island of the Dead was almost entirely filmed here.

More info:
http://www.lindenwald.com/album/hart/ (close-up images from a tour -- rediculously creepy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island_%28New_York%29
http://www.hartisland.org/
http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/hart.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nike (Nike missle information)
http://www.satellitesights.com/satelliteimage/Nike_Missle_Base_C-47_Abandoned_Indiana_United_States (another Nike site)