Ask both a New Yorker and a geography student to define Long Island, and you will get two different answers. Geographically speaking, the island encompasses 1,723 square miles within its boundaries, which extend 125 miles to the east of Manhattan. A New Yorker pictures the island a bit differently however. Because of two counties, Queens and Kings (Brooklyn), of the island's four are boroughs of New York City, only the remaining Nassau and Suffolk counties form Long Island in the minds of many city dwellers.
