Gateway National Recreation Area is a 26607 acre U.S. National Recreation Area in New York City and Monmouth County, New Jersey. It provides recreational opportunities that are not commonly found in a dense urban environment, including ocean swimming, bird watching, boating, hiking and camping. More than 8.7 million people visited Gateway National Recreation Area in 2022, making it the fourth-most visited unit of the National Park Service. Gateway was created by the U.S. Congress in 1972 to preserve and protect scarce or unique natural, cultural, and recreational resources with relatively convenient access by a high percentage of the nation's population. It is owned by the federal government and managed by the National Park Service. Gateway is distinct from other national park units due to its lack of natural buffer zones and that it faces constant environmental changes driven by human activity. The lands and waters of Gateway represent some of the last remnants of the original shoreline. Annual visitation is estimated at around 8 million people. In 2001, the Jamaica Bay and Staten Island Units in New York drew more than 6 million visitors, while the Sandy Hook Unit in New Jersey attracted over 1 million.

Creation

In 1969, the Regional Plan Association proposed a new national seashore in the New York metropolitan area, to be administered by the United States Department of the Interior. U.S. President Richard Nixon put his support behind a very similar proposal in 1970, with one significant change: instead of being designated a "seashore", the protected area would be a national park. In May of that year, the president started the process of getting Congressional approval for this move. The United States House of Representatives approved the creation of Gateway National Recreation Area in September 1972, and most of the land was transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) for inclusion in Gateway National Recreation Area. In the same vote, the House denied the state's provision to create a housing development at Floyd Bennett Field, which was to be part of the Gateway Area. Gateway National Recreation Area was officially created on October 27, 1972, along with Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. Gateway included over 26000 acre of land. This excluded some of the land proposed by the RPA, including the Coney Island shore.

Units and park sites

The recreation area comprises three units and 11 park sites in all. Primary law enforcement in the Gateway National Recreation Area is the responsibility of the United States Park Police in the New York units, and National Park Service Rangers in the New Jersey unit.

Jamaica Bay Unit

Jamaica Bay Unit, in Brooklyn and Queens, includes much of the shoreline and water below the Shore Parkway beginning at Plum Beach and ending at John F. Kennedy International Airport, along with several dozen islands in Jamaica Bay, a tidal estuary. The Jamaica Bay Unit is the largest of the three units.It also includes most of the western part of the Rockaway Peninsula, which separates Jamaica Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Among the sites in this unit are:

Staten Island Unit

The Staten Island Unit is located on the southeastern shore of Staten Island facing Lower New York Bay. It includes Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, both off limits to visitation and managed primarily for the benefit of avian species. The unit also includes the following three sites: As for Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, both are artificially constructed islands originally established in the late 19th century as quarantine centers for arriving immigrants at Ellis Island who were suspected to be carrying illnesses. Swinburne Island is the smaller of the two, at 4 acres, whereas Hoffman Island is 11 acres. Both islands are no longer publicly accessible, and now serve primarily as nesting sites for a variety of bird species. Harbor seals have also been spotted on Hoffman and Swinburne Islands during the winter season.

Sandy Hook Unit

Sandy Hook Unit is in Monmouth County in northern New Jersey. The Sandy Hook Unit covers roughly 1,665 acres of land, including 7.5 miles of ocean beaches, sheltered bayside coves, and hundreds of acres of ecologically important barrier beach vegetation. The area is home to ocean beaches, Sandy Hook Bay, salt marshes, the historic Fort Hancock, and the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. At the northern end of the unit lies the Fort Hancock complex, with hiking trails that wind through dunes, ponds, and some of the most valuable bird habitats in New Jersey. The barrier peninsula forms the other side of the "gateway" to New York Harbor, and includes two park sites:

Animal wildlife

The recreation area is home to a variety of species of the main biological classes, including amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, crustaceans, and insects. The species inhabiting these areas have all been able to habituate to the built environments of New York City and New Jersey. The following species can be found throughout all of the different units of the recreation area:

Environmental assessment

As the recreation area has locations throughout New York City and New Jersey, there are a variety of factors to be considered in terms of the effects of the surrounding urban environment on the park ecosystem.

Preservation of natural features

Part of Gateway's mission is to preserve and restore the unique natural features of New York and New Jersey. These are some recent and ongoing restoration projects at Gateway:

Gallery

Preserving Gateway’s heritage

There are approximately 800 historic buildings, structures and sites that Gateway posses. It is challenging to maintain these historic buildings due to current conditions and resources numbers as well as funding. Many of these historic buildings were already in poor condition since Gateway was established in 1972.