Roosevelt Island cable car. At the 2nd Avenue and 60th Street exits the cable car to Roosevelt (same ticket as the metro) that crosses the Queensboro Bridge along the East River to Roosevelt Island. The cable car itself is already a tourist attraction, but we can also take a stroll through this tiny island, with gardens to stroll with the kids. In 1968, New York Mayor John Lindsay declared Welfare Island as a residential area and a year later the Urban Development Corporation of New York signed a lease for 99 years with the City of New York to develop the island using a plan teacher designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. The island was renamed Roosevelt Island in 1973 and the first residential complex was opened in 1975. Roosevelt Island currently has a population of 9,500 inhabitants and has shops, restaurants and a sports complex with a football field, swimming pools, basketball courts, tennis courts and a baseball field. To access the island from Manhattan can take the F line subway or Roosevelt Island Tramway, the only long distance funicular country, installed in 1976. The funicular leaves from 59th Street in Manhattan and offers spectacular views in the four minutes it takes to make the journey. Among the places worth visiting are the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, built in 1888, the lighthouse at the north end of the island built in 1872 and designed by James Renwick, Jr., the same architect who designed the Cathedral of St. Patrick Manhattan south of the island are the ruins of the hospital for smallpox Smallpox Hospital built in 1875 and also designed by James Renwick, Jr., the Blackwell House, built in 1794, is one of the oldest houses in New York, which belonged to Robert Blackwell owned the island until 1828, north on Main Street is the Octagon Tower, the old and controversial asylum in the city built in 1835.