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Wikipedia: Gateway National Recreation Area is a 26,607 acre (107.67 km²) National Recreation Area in the New York City metropolitan area. Scattered over Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Monmouth County, New Jersey, it provides recreational opportunities that are rare for a dense urban environment, including ocean swimming, bird watching, boating, hiking and camping. Ten million people visit Gateway annually. Gateway was created by the US Congress in 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. It is owned by the United States government and managed by the National Park Service. The park comprises eleven park sites in three separate units: *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 Kennedy International Airport, along with several dozen islands in Jamaica Bay, a tidal estuary. It also includes most of the western part of the Rockaway peninsula which separates Jamaica Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. There are six parks in this unit: Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is a prime location for viewing birds and bird migrations, diamondback turtle egg-laying and horseshoe crab mating and egg laying. Its 9,155 acres include salt marsh, dunes, brackish ponds, woodland, fields and the open bay. It is the only wildlife refuge in the National Park System. Floyd Bennett Field, on the site of an historic airfield, houses the Historic Aircraft Restoration Project in Hangar B where volunteers are working to restore the park's collection of historic aircraft. Hangar B is open to the public at selected times during the week. Exhibits and programs on the airfield's history are available in the old control tower and terminal, since converted into the Ryan Visitor Center, named for William Fitts Ryan, . Floyd Bennett Field also includes numerous recreational facilities: a sports arena and ice skating rink, marina, riding academy and golf center. The grasslands of Floyd Bennett Field are a good place for viewing falcons and kestrels. Canarsie Pier is a popular fishing spot on the bay. Fort Tilden, between Jacob Riis Park and Breezy Point Tip on the Rockaway peninsula, has some of the city's most pristine and secluded ocean beaches, a successional maritime forest and a freshwater pond. Between 1917 and 1974, Fort Tilden served as part of the harbor's system of defenses and housed Nike antiaircraft missiles. Today an observatory deck on one of the old batteries offers spectacular views of Jamaica Bay, New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline. Fort Tilden is one of the best places on New York Harbor to observe hawks during the fall migration. Breezy Point Tip occupies the westernmost part of the Rockaway peninsula, forming one side of the outer gateway to New York Harbor. Its 200 acres contain oceanfront beach, bay shoreline, dunes, marshes and coastal grasslands. Breezy Point Tip is a nesting ara for the threatened piping plover. Jacob Riis Park is an ocean beach with a boardwalk and historic art deco bathhouse. It was built by powerful New York planner and administrator Robert Moses, and was named after journalist, photographer and reformer Jacob Riis.*Staten Island Unit is located on the southeastern shore of Staten Island within Lower New York Bay. It includes Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, both off-limits to visitation and managed primarily for the benefit of avian species as well as three parks: Fort Wadsworth is an historic collection of masonry fortifications on the site of much earlier fortifications at The Narrows under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Miller Field is an historic former airfield south of New Dorp with picnic areas, open areas and sports fields. Great Kills Park on Great Kills Harbor includes a marina where visitors can go boating, an ocean beach with lifeguards during the summer, and nature trails. It also serves as a nesting site for osprey.*Sandy Hook Unit is in Monmouth County in northern New Jersey. The barrier peninsula includes two park sites: Fort Hancock served as part of the harbor's coastal defense system from 1895 until 1974 and contains 100 historic buildings and fortifications. Sandy Hook contains seven beaches, including Gunnison Beach, a nude beach by custom, as well as salt marshes and a maritime holly forest. Ferries from Manhattan are available in season. Law enforcement in Gateway is the responsibility of the United States Park Police in the New York units and of commissioned park rangers in the New Jersey unit.

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