Although owned and managed by the city, Hart Island is a cemetery of national significance. It is the largest potter’s field in the United States. “I think the number might actually be closer to one million, if not more,” Melinda says, “and almost half of them are children under five years of age. It’s incredibly sad.” An estimated twelve hundred interments take place each year. Adults are buried in pine boxes stacked three high, twenty-five across, two rows per trench. For babies, the coffins are five high and roughly twenty across in a single row.
