The Bizarre Attraction That Is New York City's Boat Graveyard

It's where ships in New York City go to die-- and it's become a tourist attraction.

(Photo by @giseled)

Located on Staten Island's south shore near Fresh Kills landfill, the marine scrapyard is the city's official dumping ground for decommissioned ferries, tugboats and barges. Some of the ships have languished for decades, leaving the elements to reduce the vessels into rusted skeletons jutting out of the water and mud.

The graveyard goes by many names: the Witte Marine Scrap Yard, the Arthur Kill Boat Yard, the "Staten Island Boat Graveyard," "the Tugboat Graveyard," or as one magazine once described it, "an accidental marine museum." (Its official name these days is actually the Donjon Iron and Metal Scrap Processing Facility.) Whatever you call it, the graveyard makes for some eerie, nautical ruin porn, and has turned into a popular destination for tourists.

In May, the city advertised the graveyard to British tourists as a kind of "spooky" getaway, and on Monday, Instagram gathered the best photos of the graveyard on its platform. Many tourists, it seems, aren't deterred by how long it takes to get to the graveyard. (It's a 13-mile bus ride after you get off the Staten Island Ferry, according to DNAinfo.)

But the trek seems worth it. There's some real beauty in the decaying wrecks. Take a look below.