Figure Eight Island Figure Eight Island Figure Eight Island is a North Carolina barrier island just north of Wrightsville Beach, widely known as an affluent summer colony and vacation desitination. The island is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Area, and lies between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. As a private island, Figure Eight can only be reached by boat or via a guarded causeway swing bridge — the only private bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in the Southeast. The island has been a destination for celebrities and politicians, including former Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Edwards, — and a
Mettray Penal Colony was noted as being officially opened on 22 January 1840. The layout of the Colony was characterised by a sense of order and community. From the entrance to the Colony a large central square, dominated symbolically by a chapel on one side, lies at the end of a long tree-lined avenue. The entrance to the square has the director's house on one side and the preparatory school, where the instructors were trained, on the other. Ten identical, three-storey pavilions are arranged on the two sides of the square. These were referred to as "houses" and were the places where the