The
two dots in the midrift of sketch map indicate roughly the center,
depending on how you figure it. Eastward dot, for Yaphank, has
certain authority; westward, near Lake Ronkonkoma, is the hub, by
another reckoning. Read how the “engineers” labored to get the
facts.
The
exact geographical center of Long Island is a matter of opinion,
depending largely on the method used in determining the location of
the central point of the irregularly shaped island. One of the
methods is balancing an island map on a pin.
This, in
substance, was the reply received from the United States Coast and
Geodetic survey in Washington, following an inquiry made by this
newspaper.
Another method, of
bisecting the longest dimension, is given, with the result.
Some of the old
Yaphank folks say they have the central point of the island located
to a certainty, with a surveyor’s mark (a short, stout, round post)
to prove it. This post, says John Jones; who lives nearby in the
hilltop residence on the Yaphank-West Yaphank road across from Camp
Siegfried, was set out, according to his recollection, by the War
department many years ago-perhaps as long as the eighteen-nineties.
It is just east of
Carman’s river, (the stream between the two ponds), we have it; the
real center of Long Island. And where was it?
The pinhole was
found to be a trifle north of the Portion road, two and
three-quarters of a mile east of the eastern shore of Lake
Ronkonkoma.
Just as a sideline
test, another cardboard map was made with all the bay waters out,
out, but leaving the beaches and the islands between the headlands.
The central point on this map, determined again by balancing on a
pin, was to be found a little way off the northwestern shore of Lake
Ronkonkoma, at the junction of Rosevale Avenue and Smithtown
Boulevard.
So: Yaphank and
Lake Ronkonkoma divide the honor, whatever that may amount to, of
being the center of Long Island, all depending upon how you figure
it.