Long Island is an island in the southeast of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City (Queens and Brooklyn), and two of which are mainly suburban (Nassau and Suffolk). In popular usage, the term "Long Island" often refers only to Nassau and Suffolk counties in order to differentiate them from New York City, although all four counties are on the island and part of the New York metropolitan area.
As of the 2010 census, Long Island had a population of 7,568,304, making it the most populated island in any U.S. state or territory. It is also the 17th-most populous island in the world, ahead of Ireland, Jamaica and the Japanese island of Hokkaidō. Its population density is 5,402 inhabitants per square mile (2,086 /km2). If it were a state, Long Island would rank 13th in population (after Virginia) and first in population density.
Both the longest and the largest island in the contiguous United States, Long Island extends 118 miles (190 km) eastward from New York Harbor to Montauk Point, and has a maximum north-to-south expanse of 23 miles (37 km) between the northern Long Island Sound coast and the southern Atlantic coast. With a land area of 1,401 square miles (3,629 km2), Long Island is the 11th-largest island in the United States and the 148th-largest island in the world — larger than the 1,214 square miles (3,140 km2) of the smallest state, Rhode Island.
Two of New York City's major airports, LaGuardia Airport and JFK International Airport, are located on Long Island, in Queens. Nine bridges and 13 tunnels (including railway tunnels) connect Brooklyn and Queens (and thus Long Island) to the three other boroughs of New York City. Ferries connect Suffolk County northward across Long Island Sound to the state of Connecticut.
Read more about Long Island: Overview, Demographics, History, Economy, Government and Politics, Transportation, Long Island Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words long and/or island:
“And my youth comes back to me.
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.””
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)