National Parks of New York Harbor
National Parks of New York Harbor is the name of an office of the National Park Service that coordinates administration of ten NPS sites that include 23 unique destinations located in the New York metropolitan area. National Parks of New York Harbor was formed in 2003 and administers properties ranging from the Statue of Liberty National Monument in New York Harbor to Gateway National Recreation Area in several locations and Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site in Mount Vernon, New York. Despite its name, technically the office does not oversee any national parks, but rather national monuments, national memorials, national historic sites, and a large national recreation area. Properties overseen by the office make up 27,000 acres (110 km2) and attract more than 12 million visitors each year. They are served by a visitor's center at Federal Hall National Memorial.
The National Parks of New York Harbor umbrella was created in September 2003 as a means of drawing more visitors to the National Park Service properties in the New York City region. The organizers' primary concern was the under-visitation of the parks that comprise the Gateway National Recreation Area, one of the first urban parks when it was created, rather than the acquisition of parkland. Maria Burks, the first Commissioner, was charged with increasing awareness of park units other than the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and saw the solution to this problem as increasing the number of ferries that connect and serve the properties. As a result, when the ferry contract for the Statue of Liberty was up for bid, a discussion occurred about asking interested parties to include increased harbor service as part of their packages, but this request did not receive much focus in the end.
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