Gateway National Recreation Area

Gateway National Recreation Area is one of the first urban national parks in the United States, set up in 1972 to bring nature within reach of city dwellers. It covers roughly 110 square kilometres across New York and New Jersey in three units: Jamaica Bay, with the region's largest saltmarsh wildlife refuge and over 300 bird species; Sandy Hook in New Jersey, with Atlantic beach and the historic Fort Hancock; and Staten Island with the former forts Wadsworth and Tilden. Gateway works both as a recreation outlet for the megacity and as habitat for migratory birds on the Atlantic Flyway. The NYC subway reaches it most easily at Jacob Riis Park or the Floyd Bennett Field visitor centre.