Gateway National Recreation Area | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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Location | New York and New Jersey, United States |
Coordinates | 40°27′14″N 73°59′49″W / 40.45400°N 73.99699°WCoordinates: 40°27′14″N 73°59′49″W / 40.45400°N 73.99699°W |
Area | 26,607 acres (107.67 km2) |
Established | October 27, 1972 |
Visitors | 7,697,727 (in 2011) |
Governing body | National Park Service |
Website | Gateway National Recreation Area |
Gateway National Recreation Area is a 26,607-acre (10,767 ha) National Recreation Area in the Port of New York and New Jersey. Scattered over Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, New York, 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 recreation area comprises three units and eleven park sites in all:
Primary law enforcement in Gateway is the responsibility of the United States Park Police in the New York units, and commissioned park rangers in the New Jersey unit.
Typical landscapes along Jamaica Bay
Typical flora of Jamaica Bay shores
Typical flora of the coastal edge at Gateway
The beach at Jacob Riis Park