U Thant Island, officially Belmont Island, is an island in the East River across from United Nations headquarters at 42nd Street on Manhattan in New York City.

William Steinway, of piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons, put a shaft down the small granite outcrop Man-o'-War Reef as part of his 1890s excavation of trolley tunnels under the river to link bustling Manhattan to his eponymous company town in Queens County, placing excess landfill atop the reef. But Steinway died before his tunnels' completion, and it was financier August Belmont, Jr. who finished the project in 1907, leaving as a bonus this tiny 100 x 200 foot (30 x 60 metre) artificial island, less than half an acre (twenty ares) of land. The Steinway Tunnels are still in use as part of the 7 Flushing Line (see for construction details) in the New York Subway, and trains still pass directly beneath the island many times a day.

Belmont Island, after the financier, became (and remains) the legal name of the island.

United Nations employees following guru Sri Chinmoy, who served as an interfaith chaplain at UN HQ, adopted this forgotten islet just outside their window in 1977, greening its surface and unofficially renaming it after Burmese Buddhist United Nations Secretary General U Thant, a friend of Chinmoy. It is now the site of a thirty-foot "oneness arch" preserving personal items of the island's namesake.

U Thant Island is now the more common name, no doubt because these devotees of the group Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations, who have leased it from New York State, are the only humans to have found a use for this rather inconvenient piece of land.

The uninhabited islet is currently protected as a sanctuary for migrating birds, including a small colony of Double-crested Cormorant, and access is prohibited to the public.

Caples Jefferson Architects proposed for The New York Times Capsule, the The New York Times year 2000 time capsule, an obelisk on U Thant Island, designed to gradually disintegrate over the next millennium. Another entrant won the competition, but there may still be some effort to accomplish the project.

U Thant Island, or rather Belmont Island is legally a part of New York County and the Borough of Manhattan.

External links

• Forgotten-NY (http://www.forgotten-ny.com)
  • An Island just for U (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Potpourri/uthant.html) -photos
  • ...to the New York Islands (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/fromwater/water.html) -photos
  • Newtown Creek- Borderline Crazy (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/newtowncreek/newtown.html) -clear photo of arch
  • Steinway, Queens (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Steinway/steinway.html) -Steinway's Queens company town

• www.nycsubway.org
  • The Steinway Tunnels (http://www.nycsubway.org/irt/steinway/) -their construction
  • IRT Corona/Flushing Line (http://www.nycsubway.org/irt/flushing/) -7 Line

• Caples Jefferson Architects (http://www.capjeff.com) - look for 'New York Times Capsule' under 'Projects'