New York-4 islands & the Bronx?

OK, never been to New York but with all the news going around about Sandy, I was surprised to learn that of the 5 Burroughs, only the Bronx is attached to the mainland of the US. The other 4 are all islands.

Admittedly, I got this stat from TV news, so it could be completely wrong.

 

Brooklyn and Queens are on the western end of Long Island. Staten Island and Manhattan are islands. So, technically, 3 islands, 5 boroughs.

 

Correct, and actually Long Island is the biggest Island in the U.S.
Also, there are many small islands within NYC such as Rikers Island, the coolest place in town, worth a visit.

 

really! dozens of times in Vegas but not once in NYC?! So come over, look around, take a chance on 3 card monty in Times Square. Easy to find high stakes illegal poker games as well.

 

We also has a very strange government structure, at least compared to the rest of the country. Each borough is coterminous with a county -- Manhattan is New York County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Queens is Queens County, Staten Island is Richmond County, and the Bronx is Bronx County. So unlike the rest of the country, where counties have many cities within, New York City has five counties within. One result of this is that the city here provides many, many services that would otherwise be provided by counties elsewhere (education is a big one that comes to mind).

Also, fun fact: There is a tiny part of Manhattan (New York County) that's on the mainland. Marble Hill used to be part of Manhattan Island, but when they rerouted the Harlem River, it wound up attached to the Bronx. So it's politically and officially part of Manhattan, but is contiguous to the Bronx.