[4] During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hoffman and Swinburne Islands were used as a quarantine station, housing immigrants who, upon their arrival at the immigrant inspection station at nearby Ellis Island, presented with symptoms of contagious disease(s).

[1] Starting in 1938 and extending through World War II, the United States Merchant Marine used Hoffman and Swinburne Islands as a training station.

During World War II the islands also served as anchorages for anti-submarine nets intended to protect New York Bay and its associated shipping/naval activities, from enemy submarines entering from the Atlantic Ocean.

[4] Since World War II, several proposals for utilizing Hoffman and Swinburne Islands have been presented.

To protect the islands' avian residents, which include great egret, snowy egret, black-crowned night heron, glossy ibis, double-crested cormorant and great black-backed gull, the island is off limits to the public.