Long Island Resources

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Long Island Overview

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What is Long Island? Long Island is an island in New York, USA. At 1,377 square miles (3567 km²) and is home to 7.536 million residents as of 2005. It is the largest island in the continental United States, the most populous island in any U.S. state or territory, and the 17th most populous island in the world, having a larger population than the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the countries of Ireland and Jamaica. True to its name, the island is much longer, jutting out some 118 miles (190 km) from New York Harbor, than it is wide, with only from 12 to 20 miles (32 km) between the southern Atlantic coast and Long Island Sound. The Native American name for Long Island is Paumonauk, meaning "fish-shaped island." On the western part of Long Island are the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens (Queens County); east of these are Nassau and Suffolk counties. However, colloquial usage of the term "Long Island" or "the Island" usually refers only to Nassau and Suffolk counties only; Brooklyn and Queens are omitted, as they are part of New York City. Long Island is known for its affluence and high quality of life. As of 2004, Nassau County is listed as the richest county per capita in New York State, as well as the sixth richest in the United States. Suffolk County is known for many communities located on its beaches, including the world renowned Hamptons. According to the FBI's Crime Index, Long Island (Nassau-Suffolk) has the second lowest crime rate in the United States. The Long Island Economy The counties of Nassau and Suffolk have long been renowned for their affluence. With median home prices rising in excess of $400,000 USD [4], Long Island has a very high cost of living with residents paying some of the highest property taxes in the country. Such affluence is especially pervasive among the hamlets and villages on the North Shore of Long Island also known as the 'Gold Coast' and among opulent pockets of the South Shore. Long Island is home to some of the most expensive houses in the country. In fact, the most expensive residence in the country is Three Ponds in Bridgehampton. [5] Long Island is home to the luxury communities of the Hamptons, as well as Cold Spring Harbor and Lloyd Harbor in Suffolk County and Garden City, Laurel Hollow, Syosset, and Manhasset in Nassau County. The economy of Long Island has long benefited from its proximity to New York City, although before and during World War II, Long Island began developing industry of its own. From about 1930 to about 1990, Long Island was considered one of the aviation centers of the United States, with companies such as Grumman Aircraft and Sperry Gyroscope having their headquarters and factories in the Bethpage area. Grumman has long been the source of top warplanes for the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps, as seen in the movie Top Gun and numerous WW-II naval and Marine Corps aviation movies. Prominent WW-II Grumman aircraft included the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat fighters, and the TBF Avenger bomber, flown by hundreds of U.S. and Allied pilots, including former President George H.W. Bush. Long Island has played a prominent role in scientific research and in engineering. It was the home of the Grumman Aircraft factories where all the Apollo Program Lunar Module spacecraft were built; and it still is the home of the Brookhaven National Laboratories in nuclear physics and Department of Energy research. All of this makes Long Island one of the leading high-technology areas in the world. In their early decades, Sperry Gyroscope and related companies were concentrated on Long Island, especially in Nassau County in the Bethpage area. Over the years, it also diversified to other locations. The company did very well during WW-II as military demand skyrocketed; it specialized in high technology devices such as gyrocompasses, analog computer-controlled bombsights, airborne radar systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. As the reader can see, these were jumping-off points into the multibillion-dollar annually aviation electronics business. During the Cold War decade of the 1950s, part of Sperry Gyroscope was moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and soon thereafter became part of the Sperry Flight Systems Company. This was to try to preserve parts of this vital defense company in the event of a thermonuclear conflagration. Both on Long Island and in Arizona, Sperry continued to excel at aviation electronics — avionics, and it also provided avionics systems for such NASA programs as the Space Shuttle. In recent decades companies such as Sperry Rand and Computer Associates, headquartered in Islandia, have made Long Island a center for the computer industry. Nevertheless, the eastern end of the island is still partly agricultural, now including many vineyards as well as traditional truck farming. Fishing also continues to be an important industry, especially at Northport and Montauk. Since World War II, Long Island has become increasingly suburban and, in some areas, fully urbanized. Levittown was only the first of many new suburbs, and businesses followed residential development eastward. Long Island is home to the East Coast's largest industrial park, the Hauppauge Industrial Park. The park has over 1,300 companies, and employs over 55,000 Long Islanders. Companies in the park and abroad are represented by the Hauppauge Industrial Association. A growing entertainment industry presence can also be found on the Island. Most recently producer Mitchell Kriegman established Wainscott Studios in Water Mill where the PBS children's show, “It's a Big, Big World”, is shot. Information & links provided by Wikipedia

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