Gateway National Recreation Area Totally Explained

Everything about Gateway National Recreation Area totally explained

Gateway National Recreation Area is a 26,607 acre (107.67 km²) National Recreation Area in the New York City metropolitan area. It was created by the US Congress in 1972 to preserve and protect scarce and/or unique natural, cultural, and recreational resources. It is owned by the United States government and managed by the National Park Service. The park comprises four separate units located in three boroughs of New York City and one county in central New Jersey. Law enforcement is the responsibility of the United States Park Police in the New York units, and of commissioned park rangers in the New Jersey unit. Three of the four units include popular swimming beaches. The area drew more than 8 million visitors in 2005 and is consistently among the 10 most visited units of the National Park System, surpassing more familiar parks such as Yellowstone and Grand Canyon.

Jamaica Bay Unit includes much of the shoreline and water below the Shore Parkway beginning at Plum Beach and ending at Kennedy International Airport. In addition, several dozen islands in Jamaica Bay, along with the water itself, is designated the only "wildlife refuge" in the National Park System (usually, "wildlife refuges" are a US Fish & Wildlife Service function). The bay is a tidal estuary off the southern parts of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The unit has a visitors center named for William Fitts Ryan (the congressman who championed Gateway's creation) that has been under development for many years at the historic former airport - Floyd Bennett Field. Additional amenities include a number of concessions, including a public stable and equestrian trails, a public marina, and a multi-purpose sports/entertainment complex. A visitor contact station specifically for the wildlife refuge is accessible by automobile, transit buses, and a subway station within walking distance to the trail system on Rulers Bar Hassock, the main island. This is the only portion of the refuge accessible to the general public. Access to the other islands is prohibited. The 9,000-plus acre refuge includes much of the waters and almost all of the remaining marsh islands in Jamaica Bay, which are protected. This is the only unit that doesn't have bathing beaches. The Jamaica Bay Unit also contains an inholding: the community of Broad Channel. Fishing, nature-viewing, aviation history, photography, boating, cycling, and sailing are the most popular activities within this unit.

Breezy Point Unit is located in Rockaway, Queens, New York. It stretches to the tip of Rockaway Point and includes Jacob Riis Park and Fort Tilden, each with districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It preserves, in part, some of the last remaining natural dunes in the area, and is home to at least two endangered species (piping plover, and beach tiger beetle). The unit contains two significant inholdings: the communities of Breezy Point and Roxbury. The life-guarded beach and historic Bath House area in the summer months receive most of this unit's annual visitation. Fishing, swimming, nature-viewing, cycling, and sunbathing are the most popular activities.

Staten Island Unit is located on the south shore of Staten Island within Lower New York Bay. It includes Fort Wadsworth, an historic collection of masonry fortifications on the site of much earlier fortifications; Miller Field, an historic former airfield south of New Dorp; as well as Great Kills Park on Great Kills Harbor - which includes a marina concession. Also within this unit are Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, both off-limits to visitation and managed primarily for the benefit of avian species. Organized sports, nature-viewing, sailing, boating, sunbathing and military history are the most popular activities.

Sandy Hook Unit is in Monmouth County in northern New Jersey. The barrier peninsula Sandy Hook is home to the historic former Fort Hancock, as well as the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in America (1764). The unit also includes Gunnison Beach, a "Nude beach" by custom. Ferries from Manhattan in New York are available in season. Sunbathing, swimming, fishing, cycling, nature-viewing, and military history are the most popular activities. Image:JamaicaBayLandscapes.jpg|Typical landscapes along Jamaica Bay Image:GNRAflora.JPG|Typical flora of Jamaica Bay shores Image:GNRAgrass.JPG|Typical flora of the coastal edge at Gateway Image:GRNA PlumbBeach.JPG|Plumb Beach situated in Brooklyn, is a part of Gateway Image:Jacob Riis Park.jpg|The beach at Jacob Riis Park Further Information

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