Did You Know That Queens and Brooklyn Are On Long Island?

The eureka moment should have happened while my wife and I were passengers in my friend’s Mercedes Benz SUV recently. I had asked him how come we were in Long Island and we had not crossed a bridge. He said that there was no bridge from Queens to Long Island, and I was curious because all along I had thought that Long Island was this geographically isolated enclave island where the wealthy lived. And I half expected that there might have been a ferry.

Get this. I have since done some basic geographic research. Here is the truth. All of New York City except for Bronx is set on islands. New York City consists of five boroughs used to run the five counties of the city. The boroughs are: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. They are all located on islands except for Bronx and a small portion of upper Manhattan called Marble Hill.

There is no bridge to Long Island from Brooklyn or Queens because these two boroughs are located on the island of Long Island.

Geographically, I have been visiting Long Island for years.  That’s right.  Every time I journeyed into Queens or Brooklyn I was on Long island.  In fact, the moment we touched down at JFK we were on the island.  But in terms of the political division, I journeyed into Long Island for the first time on November 14, 2009. 

And on the island of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, my friend blended right in; he was a successful tax accountant and financial consultant with a lovely wife and three children.