Uploaded December 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The first public use of Hart Island was to train United States Black Troops in 1864. Since then, the island has been used as a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, potter's field, and a boys' reformatory. During the Cold War, Nike defense missiles were also stationed on Hart Island. The island now serves as the city's potter's field and is run by the New York City Department of Correction.
Over a million poor and indigent persons, including stillborn babies are buried here
making this the largest tax funded cemetery in the world.
It’s the largest cemetery in the United States but also the least visited.
The first public use of Hart Island was to train United States Black Troops in 1864. Since then, the island has been used as a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, potter's field, and a boys' reformatory. During the Cold War, Nike defense missiles were also stationed on Hart Island. The island now serves as the city's potter's field and is run by the New York City Department of Correction.
Over a million poor and indigent persons, including stillborn babies are buried here
making this the largest tax funded cemetery in the world.
It’s the largest cemetery in the United States but also the least visited.
