An urban national park of beaches, bays, barrier islands, and historic forts at the entrance to New York Harbor.
Gateway National Recreation Area
Gateway National Recreation Area is a 26,607-acre U.S. National Recreation Area that spans parts of New York City and Monmouth County, New Jersey. Unlike most national park units, it sits within or directly adjacent to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States, providing ocean beaches, bays, salt marshes, and barrier beaches within easy reach of millions of residents. It is one of the most visited units of the National Park Service, drawing more than 8.7 million visitors in 2022 and ranking as the fourth most-visited unit in the system that year.
The recreation area is divided into three units that together form a partial ring around the entrance to New York Harbor. The Jamaica Bay Unit in Brooklyn and Queens surrounds much of the Jamaica Bay estuary and the western Rockaway Peninsula. The Staten Island Unit occupies the southeastern shore of Staten Island and includes offshore islands that once served as immigrant quarantine stations. The Sandy Hook Unit lies across the harbor in northern New Jersey, where the Sandy Hook Peninsula forms the other side of the harbor's maritime gateway. Together, these landscapes include some of the last remnants of the original natural shoreline of the New York region.
Gateway's significance lies in its unusual combination of urban access, coastal ecology, and historic military architecture. It preserves bird-rich salt marshes, maritime forests, ocean beaches, dune systems, and decommissioned forts, while offering recreational opportunities such as swimming, boating, camping, hiking, and birdwatching in a dense urban setting. Its creation reflected a deliberate policy choice to safeguard accessible natural landscapes near major population centers, ensuring that large portions of the public could experience authentic coastal environments without long-distance travel.
