2. When Kahn commissioned OHEKA, it was the highest point on Long Island
In the two years it took to build Oheka Castle, those in charge of the castle’s construction also built a large hill on which the castle would stand. With the addition of this hill, Oheka Castle became the highest point on Long Island. This title no longer holds.
Jayne’s Hill, which stands between 387 feet and 400.9 feet above sea level is the current highest point on Long Island. Walt Whitman, who was born near Jayne’s Hill, revisited the hill and wrote, “I write this back again at West Hills on a high elevation (the highest spot on Long Island?) Of Jayne’s Hill. . . . A view of thirty of forty, or even fifty or more miles, especially to the east and south and southwest: the Atlantic Ocean to the latter points in the distance – a glimpse or so of Long Island Sound to the north.”
