There’s a mysterious, abandoned island less than a mile from Manhattan and almost no one is allowed to visit — here’s what it’s like

• North Brother Island is a 22-acre piece of land in New York City that has been abandoned since 1963.
• The island, which is next to the infamous Rikers prison, was a quarantine location 150 years ago.
• Business Insider visited the island and photographed the dilapidated state of its 25 buildings.

Less than a mile from Manhattan — one of the priciest and most densely populated places in the world — sits North Brother Island, a mysterious island that people abandoned more than half a century ago.

New York City owns the 22-acre plot, which pokes out of the East River between the South Bronx’s industrial coast and a notorious prison: Rikers Island Correctional Center.

It’s illegal for the public to set foot on North Brother Island and its smaller companion, South Brother Island, without permission from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Even then, access is only granted in rare cases. Even birds seem to avoid its crumbling, abandoned structures.

In 2017, producers for the Science Channel obtained the city’s permission to visit North Brother Island, and the crew invited Business Insider to tag along. The story of our small expedition premiered in season four of “What on Earth?” a popular TV show about satellite images. (Our segment closes out episode 12.)

Here’s what we saw and learned while romping around one of New York’s spookiest and most forgotten places.