Photos: NYC’s Mysterious, Abandoned Island

J. J. Abrams should get his ass in gear quick—we think photographer Richard Nickel Jr. has found NYC's answer to Lost. This AM, Flavorwire put up a gallery of the shutterbug's evocative photo essay on North Brother Island, a forgotten island in the East River between Bronx and Rikers Island. The isle housed a quarantine hospital that was home to Typhoid Mary, was the site of an experimental drug treatment program, and had dorms for soldiers studying under the GI bill after WWII. It's been completely abandoned since 1963, but a dozen buildings remain, in varying states of decomposition. We dare you to interrupt your afternoon and take a trip to the land time forget—it's dreamy and slightly sinister, sans the polar bears.