Hello and welcome back to the Most Amazing channel on the internet.
I am your host, Rebecca Felgate and today we’re talking about the Top 10 New York
City Urban Legends.
I love especially Manhattan and Brooklyn!
I loved visiting Coney Island, too!
A city with some seaside….
Thumbs up from me!
Before we swing into this video – why don’t you guys let me know your favorite city!
Okay, New York City….honestly I found so many here we could so easily make a part 2!
10 - Hell Gate Bridge I mean, if you are going to name your bridge
Hell Gate Bridge, you really are asking for trouble.
In fairness, the bridge is named after the tidal straight it crosses in the east river…but
still.
The bridge connects Queens to Randalls Island and is an on brand red color.
There are a number of urban legends connected to the bridge, including rumors of a killer
lurking beneath its arches, but the main legend here surrounds the ghost trains.
According to local lore, the bridge is haunted by an old train whose passengers are the cities
damned.
Those who find themselves on the bridge at night report seeing strange lights thundering
towards them before they disappear.
Others report seeing an old, battered train floating over the river.
The legend says that the carriages are filled with people who have lost their lives in the
water…from murder victims, people who have fallen short of the mafia, suicide jumpers
and historic Dutch Explorers…they all sit together on the weirdest ride of all time.
9 - Cropsey Cropsey is Staten Islands very own Boogie
Man, but the legend coincides with some real life terrifying stuff…
Cropsey was rumored to be a killer with a hook for a hand who had escaped from a mental
institution and hunted children.
Cropsey was said to live in an old abandoned asylum, the Willowbrook Mental Institution.
He would come out late at night and steal children off the streets, torturing them with
his hook…in other variants of the story, he would have a bloody ax.
Whichever way it was told, he was out there.
Parents would use Cropsey to warn kids not to miss their curfews, others would use him
to tease one another at sleepovers.
Sadly, the legend became mixed up in reality in the 1970 and 1980s when Staten Island children
really started to disappear.
Andre Rand started working at the Willowbrook State School – a school for children with
learning difficulties that turned out to be an awful an unnurturing place for many reasons.
Rand worked there and abducted and murdered 5 children.
He was finally caught in 1987 when a young girl with Down Syndrome, Jennifer Schweiger,
went missing.
According to the acclaimed documentary, Rand may have been involved in Satanism and was
possible killing the children as a ritual sacrifice.
8 - 8 Million Rats NYC dwellers will tell you that the population
of rats will soon outnumber the population of people living in the 5 boroughs.
Rats, of course, are terrifying for a good number of reasons – they’re vermin, they’re
unclean and the spread disease.
Hello…plague, anyone!
While there is a whole load of rats living in New York City, there is actually around
1 rat to ever 4 dwellers – around 2 million rats…which is still a lot of rats!
They’ll only be one Pizza Rat, though!
We could do a whole top 10 on various legends of New York Rats…some people even think
giant and or Mutant rats are running riot down there.
Cool!
7 - The Ghost Ship of the Hudson River The Hudson River separates New York and New
Jersey and runs all the way from the ocean up to Albany.
The river is an iconic part of New York City and has urban legends of its very own.
One popular story is the Legend of The Half Moon – the famous ship sailed by Henry Hudson,
the namesake of the river.
Hudson was lost at sea in 1611, although his ship is sometimes spotted sailing the famous
river.
One man named Samuel was fishing along the Hudson on the evening before a storm when
he saw a wooden ship with three empty masts.
Samuel was confused as he had never seen a boat like this in his life and said it drifted
50 ft away from him before disappearing.
It seems the legend goes that the Half Moon is only spotted when times are rough on the
river, serving as a warning for people to stay on dry land until bad weather passes.
6 - The Buried Treasure of Liberty Island Here be treasure…and ghosts!
Captain William Kidd was a Scottish Pirate who sailed on many an adventure but was especially
known for his illicit activity around New York City.
The famous pirate was said to have stashed a boatload of bounty on Liberty Island, which
in those days existed without its famous state and was called Bedloe Island.
After his death in 1701 for piracy, people started looking for Captain Kid’s loot…
two soldiers, Gibbs and Carpenter, went to look for the treasure.
They literally thought they had struck gold when they came across a wooden chest.
Before they could open it, they were set upon by what they described as a demon with black
skin, horns, and wings.
This evil apparition is said to guard the treasure to this day, and still stalk liberty
island at night.
I wonder how lady libz feels about that?
5 - Killer Pennies off the Empire State Ever heard the one about people throwing pennies
or cents off the empire state and – with the momentum they picked up from being dropped
at such a great height, them killing innocent people standing below?
It is a popular Manhattan urban legend and genuinely makes people nervous when walking
around the base of the iconic building.
This is just a scare story, though…an urban legend!
A penny’s terminal velocity, the fastest it can fall through the air, is 25 miles per
hour…even when dropped 1250 feet, it wouldn’t kill someone on the ground.
It would hurt, sure.
It would sting, absolutely, but it wouldn’t kill.
To be honest, there are so many safety precautions these days that it is very unlikely anyone
would be able to launch a projectile off the top of the building.
4 - The Secret Bunker Ahh, love me a tin hat conspiracy!
Legend has it that there is 500 square acre subterranean city 100 feet under the central
park.
Theorists call the secret bunker The Manhattan Project….although I don’t know if they
know that that name is already taken.
These theorists, though, think that this secret project predates the atomic bomb.
To accompany the theory, there is a rather in-depth website that claims to the bunker
was built in 1853 and that it is still in active use down there.
The site shows picture evidence of the bunker and its clandestine entrances around the park.
The site also claims that the bunker is the property of the US government and that both
Tsar Nicholas, the overthrown King of Russia, and Adolph Hitler were rescued and lived out
their lives there.
Hitler under the central park.
Cool.
OH… did I say Tsar Nicholas and Hitler and forget to mention the aliens?
Well, the Roswell aliens were supposed to have lived down here too.
Cool.
Sure.
Keeping it in Central Park, we have the legend of the Ice Skating Sisters at number 3
This urban legend dates back to a pair of siblings, the Van der Voot sisters, who lived
with their overprotective wealthy father in his Manhattan townhouse.
Their father, a widower, would rarely let his daughters leave the house and when they
did they weren’t allowed to go far.
The furthest he would let them go would be to ice skate on the 59th street pond located
at the south-east section of the park.
They enjoyed this tiny, tiny slice of freedom so much.
Both siblings died spinsters within months of each other in 1880.
Around 35 years later, during the first world war, stories started circulating of two girls
seen gliding over the 59th street pond.
The sightings have occurred frequently ever since, and in all weather.
The pair is seen in a Victorian-era dress, with one wearing red and one wearing purple.
The sisters enjoy such fame as an urban legend, even the New York Times ran an article on
them in 1997.
2 - John Lennon and the Ghosts of The Dakota Building
The Dakota Building is a New York Landmark.
Built-in 1884 it was already shrouded in mystery and paranormal whisperings before providing
the backdrop to John Lennon’s Murder in 1980.
The former Beatle, of course, was shot outside the front steps by David Chapman.
John lived in the building with Yoko Ono, who claims to have seen his ghost sitting
in their apartment.
She isn’t the only one who has seen his apparition, either.
In 1983, Joey Harrow and Amanda Moores saw him standing at the entrance looking pensive.
It seems John is just one of a number of ghosts haunting the famous building – Lennon himself
said he saw a spirit called the crying lady, the ghost of a former manager of the building.
The Dakota is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a young blonde girl in a yellow taffeta
dress.
Residents of the building to this day still report a lot of strange goings-on.
Finally, coming into number one…we have one of the most famous NYC urban legends…behold…
the legend of the Sewer Alligators In New York City, there has been a legend
for decades upon decades that Alligators exist in the sewer.
The urban legend dates back to the 1930s and goes that wealthy people would bring baby
gators back from their trips to Florida and the southeastern states.
When the Gators got too much for them, they would flush them down the toilet and the snappy
chappies would end up in the sewer, where they would breed with other abandoned pets.
In 1932, the New York Times reported an alligator spotting along the Bronx riverbank and three
years later teenagers told news outlets they saw one crawl out of the sewer.
People still claim to see gators in New York today, despite many refuting the claims.
That being said, A 2-foot Caiman was caught in Central Park in 2001…so the legend more
than prevails.
So that was the top 10 Scary New York City Urban Legends!
What did you think of this list?
Will you be visiting NYC any time soon?
Which of these legends scares you the most?
Leave me a comment in the comments section below and don’t forget to tell me your favorite
city!
Okay before I go, I just want to read a few comments from one of my recent videos – Danny
and I did a collaboration on the Top 10 Scary World Cup Stories because we were getting
in the spirit o sport!
Here is what you guys had to say!
Mari Pablo said: Me finding out Danny and Rebecca made a vid together:….then they
put lots of faces that kind of looked like ducks…..and they continued by saying: I'm
shaking who else is too?
LGT Andrew said: I want more vids with Rebecca and Danny?
Few Grain 42 said: Bacon.
I am all about #teamiceland or Switzerland.
You know that the Japanese and Senegalese fans stayed behind to tidy up the arena.
The Senegal japan game will be very clean.?
That is very nice of them.
What was the bacon bit about….?
Finally, Zack Wolff said they’re supporting England because football is coming home.
That Is what I hear!
So guys, let me know what you thought to this list and if you would like more scary urban
legends.
If you know any for your city, let me know!
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