Inside the quarantine island housing Typhoid Mary where people are banned from visiting

It is illegal for people to visit North Brother Island without permission from New York authorities due to its dilapidated condition - but it remains a sanctuary of 'designated birds

The strange island was abandoned almost 60 years ago in 1963 (

Image: Alamy Stock Photo

Not far from the twinkling and glamorous lights of Manhattan in New York City lies an island with a sordid and dark history.

North Brother Island served as a quarantine location for infected patients, including the infamous "Typhoid Mary" Mallon, from the 1880s to 1943.

People suffering from deadly diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis, leprosy and others were shipped there away from the healthy population of mainland New York, where it was thought they would be at a safe distance.

Mary, asymptomatic, caused the deaths of more than 100 people for whom she worked as a cook after infecting them with typhoid in the early 20th century.

She died institutionalized in a bungalow next to Riverside Hospital on the island in 1938.

'Typhoid Mary' (bottom left) was the first person identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the typhoid bacillus in the United States (

Picture:

Bettmann Archives)

Even before Mary, however, the island was engulfed in tragedy when the steamer General Slocum caught fire in 1904 and sank in the East River, killing over 1,000 passengers.

Many of the victims were members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church on their way to an annual church picnic.

Bodies were found washed up on shore for days afterwards.