Randall's Island, along with neighboring Ward's Island, now joined to
it, lies in the East River between East Harlem, the South Bronx, and
Astoria, Queens... Prior to the New Deal it housed institutions such as an
ophanage, a poor house, a reform school, a potters field, a refuge for sick
and/or destitute immigrants, a mental hospital, and a home for Civil War
veterans. A massive amount of work was done to demolish these buildings,
relocate people, landscape the island, and build ballfields, tennis courts,
playgrounds, paths, and roads, plus ramps connecting to Queens, the Bronx,
and Manhattan. See this
Parks
Department press release to get an idea of the scale of this project.
The work was performed by the Triborough Bridge Authority and the Department
of Parks. As noted
here, the TBA was
funded by the New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA), and as noted
here the Parks Department
was overwhelmingly staffed by federal relief workers during this period so
any Parks Department project in the 1934-38 period qualifies also as a New
Deal project.
Besides all that, there was the historic Randall's
Island Stadium, which was built by the WPA in 1936.
References:
Links: