Gateway National Recreation Area

Infobox Protected area
name = Gateway National Recreation Area
iucn_category = V

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caption =
locator_x = 256
locator_y = 62
location = New York & New Jersey, USA
nearest_city = New York City, New York
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area = 26,607 acres (107.67 km²)
established = October 27, 1972
visitation_num = 8,294,353
visitation_year = 2005
governing_body = National Park Service

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 [Congress of the United States. Public Law 92-592. October 27, 1972.] to preserve and protect scarce and/or unique natural, cultural, and recreational resources with relatively convenient access by a high percentage of the nation's population. [Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. "Establishment of Gateway National Recreation Area in the States of New York and New Jersey". United States Senate, 92nd Congress, 1st Session. Report Number 92-345 to accompany S. 1852 Ordered to be printed August 3, 1971] 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). . 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.

References

External links

* [http://www.nps.gov/gate/ Gateway National Recreation Area (National Park Service)]
* [http://www.nyharborparks.org/visit/gana.html Gateway National Recreation Area (National Park Service partner)]
* [http://members.aol.com/foghornnj/myhomepage/ Friends of Gunnison official website]