6. South Brother Island

South Brother lacks in foreboding tales of the infirm but it makes up for it with humorous historical real estate ventures. Originally the property of Jacob Ruppert, owner of the Yankees largely responsible for bringing Babe Ruth to New York, the island’s only structure burned down in 1909. After Ruppert sold the island, the real estate transactions go something like this: private ownership to public ownership to private again to public again, with prices ranging from $10 from an investment firm in 1975 to $2 million of Federal Grant money in 2007.
Today, there are sandy beaches and remnants of a dock on the shoreline of South Brother Island.