Outer barrier

Last updated April 30, 2019

The outer barrier, also known as the Long Island and New York City barrier islands, refers to the string of barrier islands that divide the lagoons south of Long Island, New York from the Atlantic Ocean. These islands include Coney Island, Long Beach Barrier Island, Island Park, Jones Beach Island, Fire Island and Westhampton Island. The outer barrier extends 75 miles (121 km) along the South Shore of Long Island, from Rockaway Beach on the New York City/Nassau County border from Long Beach Barrier Islands' western edge, to Suffolk County's east end of Shinnecock Bay.

Lagoon A shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs

A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons. They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries. Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world.

The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans, with an area of about 106,460,000 square kilometers. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It separates the "Old World" from the "New World".

Coney Island is a residential and commercial neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is bounded by Sea Gate to its west, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south, and Gravesend to the north. Coney Island was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island, but in the early 20th century it became a peninsula, connected to the rest of Long Island by land fill.

The lagoons enclosed by the barrier islands are Jamaica Bay, Brosewere Bay, Hewlett Bay, Reynolds Channel, Middle Bay, East Bay, South Oyster Bay, Great South Bay, and arms of the Great South Bay that have their own geographic names: Great Cove, Nicoll Bay, Patchogue Bay, Bellport Bay, Narrow Bay, Moriches Bay, Quantuck Bay, Tiana Bay, and Shinnecock Bay. East Rockaway Inlet, Jones Inlet, Fire Island Inlet, Old Inlet, Moriches Inlet, and Shinnecock Inlet pierce the barrier, forming the individual sandy islands. The resort communities of Atlantic Beach, Long Beach, and Westhampton Beach; the Fire Island National Seashore, Robert Moses State Park, Jones Beach State Park, and other recreational areas are found there. The low-lying islands are subject to wave erosion, and, during storms, they are sometimes inundated and cut through.^{[ citation needed ]}

Jamaica Bay Bay on the southern side of Long Island, New York

Jamaica Bay is located on the southern side of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York, near the island's western end. The bay connects with Lower New York Bay to the west through Rockaway Inlet and is the westernmost of the coastal lagoons on the south shore of Long Island. Politically, it is divided between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City, with a small part touching Nassau County.

Reynolds Channel is a strait in Nassau County, New York that separates Long Beach Barrier Island, which contains the City of Long Beach and the villages of Atlantic Beach, Lido Beach, and Point Lookout, from Long Island, Barnum Island, Harbor Isle, and various uninhabited islands between Long Beach Island and Long Island. The channel begins at the East Rockaway Inlet and ends at Point Lookout, where it merges with the Jones Inlet. Four bridges cross the channel: the Atlantic Beach Bridge, the Long Island Rail Road's Long Beach Branch bridge, the Long Beach Boulevard Bridge, and the Loop Parkway Bridge. The channel is named after William Reynolds, a developer and former State Senator who greatly built up Long Beach Island in the early 20th century.

South Oyster Bay or East Bay is a natural harbor along the western portion of the south shore of Long Island in New York in the United States. The harbor is formed by Jones Beach Island, a barrier island on the southern side of Long Island. It is approximately 3 mi (5 km) wide between the two islands, and approximately 15 mi (24 km) long. It links to Great South Bay on its eastern end and opens to the Atlantic Ocean through inlets on either side of Jones Beach Island.

The islands

Long Beach Barrier Island

Long Beach Barrier Island lies off the south shore of Long Island. The island is shared by the hamlet of Atlantic Beach to the west, the city of Long Beach and the hamlet of Lido Beach in the central part of the island, and the hamlet of Point Lookout at the eastern end of the island. (The three hamlets — Atlantic Beach, Lido Beach, and Point Lookout — are part of the town of Hempstead, New York.)

The South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York, is the area along Long Island's Atlantic Ocean shoreline. Though some consider the South Shore to include parts of Queens, particularly the beach communities in the Rockaways such as Belle Harbor, the term is generally used to refer to the Long Island coastline in Nassau and Suffolk counties. It is often used as a generic name for the entire southern half of Long Island rather than just the area immediately adjacent to the coastline.

Long Island is a densely populated island off the East Coast of the United States, beginning at New York Harbor approximately 0.35 miles (0.56 km) from Manhattan Island and extending eastward into the Atlantic Ocean. The island comprises four counties in the U.S. state of New York. Kings and Queens Counties and Nassau County share the western third of the island, while Suffolk County occupies the eastern two-thirds. More than half of New York City's residents now live on Long Island, in Brooklyn and Queens. However, many people in the New York metropolitan area colloquially use the term Long Island to refer exclusively to Nassau and Suffolk Counties, which are mainly suburban in character, conversely employing the term the City to mean Manhattan alone.

Atlantic Beach is a village off the South Shore of Long Island in the Town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States. It is located on Long Beach Barrier Island, one of the outer barrier islands which it shares with Long Beach, East Atlantic Beach, Atlantic Beach Estates, Lido Beach and Point Lookout. To the North, Atlantic Beach is bordered by Reynold's Channel and East Rockaway Inlet.

Within its section of the barrier island, the city of Long Beach spans the entire north-south width of the island, fronting on both Reynolds Channel, to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean, to the south. A drawbridge, the Long Beach Bridge, connects it to Island Park, a small island which lies between Long Beach and the mainland of Long Island. To the west, the Atlantic Beach Bridge, connects the island to Lawrence on Long Island. The Loop Parkway, located to the east where Lido Beach and Point Lookout border one another, connects the island to Jones Beach.

A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of movable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word drawbridge commonly refers to all types of movable bridges, such as bascule bridges, vertical-lift bridges and swing bridges, but this article concerns the narrower, more historical definition of the term.

The Long Beach Bridge is a drawbridge crossing Reynolds Channel, connecting Long Beach and Island Park, New York. There is no toll. The bridge starts in Long Beach as Long Beach Boulevard. At Barnum Island, the main road continues northeast as Austin Boulevard, while Long Beach Road branches to the north.

Island Park is a village located in southern Nassau County, New York in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the village had a total population of 2,032.

Jones Beach Island

Jones Beach Island is a barrier island off the southern coast of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. It is named for the father of Thomas Jones (historian). It is sometimes referred to as Oak Beach Island, and the former home of the infamous Oak Beach Inn. It is separated from Long Island by Great South Bay. The island straddles the county line between Nassau and Suffolk counties and includes the census-designated places of Gilgo and Oak Beach–Captree, New York.

Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen.They are subject to change during storms and other action, but absorb energy and protect the coastlines and create areas of protected waters where wetlands may flourish. A barrier chain may extend uninterrupted for over a hundred kilometers, excepting the tidal inlets that separate the islands, the longest and widest being Padre Island of Texas. The length and width of barriers and overall morphology of barrier coasts are related to parameters including tidal range, wave energy, sediment supply, sea-level trends, and basement controls. The amount of vegetation on the barrier has a large impact on the height and evolution of the island.

In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.

New York is a state in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that formed the United States. With an estimated 19.54 million residents in 2018, it is the fourth most populous state. In order to distinguish the state from the city with the same name, it is sometimes referred to as New York State.

The southern side of the island is known for its beaches that face the open Atlantic Ocean. Jones Beach State Park, on the western tip of the island is a summer recreational destination for the New York City area.

Jones Beach State Park is a state park of the U.S. state of New York. It is in southern Nassau County, in the hamlet of Wantagh, on Jones Beach Island, a barrier island linked to Long Island by the Meadowbrook State Parkway, Wantagh State Parkway, and Ocean Parkway.

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km²), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

It is accessible from Long Island on its western end by the Meadowbrook Parkway to Merrick, New York, the Loop Parkway to Long Beach, New York and the Wantagh Parkway to Wantagh, New York. Its eastern end is linked to Babylon, New York as well as to Fire Island, New York by the Robert Moses Causeway via the Great South Bay Bridge and the State Boat Channel Bridge. The Ocean Parkway connects all three causeways and runs the length of the island, while The Fire Island Inlet Bridge continues on the Robert Moses Causeway finding its way to the New York's Fire Island on the Atlantic Ocean.

Fire Island

Fire Island is a barrier island, approximately 31 miles (50 km) long and varying between approximately 0.1 mile (160 m) to 0.25 mile (400 m) wide. Fire Island passes through southern Suffolk County, New York, and is southeast of Long Island separated from the main land by the Great South Bay in the U.S. state of New York, running approximately SW to NE. The land area is 8.687 sq. mi. (22.5 km²), and a permanent population of 491 people was reported as of the 2000 census. (There are hundreds of thousands of summertime residents, groupers and daytrippers.) The island is composed of three communities, as defined by the Census Bureau. The largest of these is Fire Island (CDP), which is unincorporated and stretches through the southern portion of the towns of Babylon, Islip, and Brookhaven.

Distorted panoramic view of western Fire Island from the top of Fire Island Lighthouse

There are several ocean front communities such as, Davis Park and Watch Hill that are on the eastern side of the Great south bay. Fire Island has a variety of ocean front communities that can be reached by private boat, or seasonal ferry service from Long Island's mainland. Fire Island has a 2000 census population of 310 inhabitants. There are also two villages in the Islip section of the island, Saltaire (pop. 43) and Ocean Beach (pop. 138). In addition, a part of Fire Island CDP is not even on the island, but on a separate island adjacent to West Hampton Dunes.

Fire Island Inlet is an inlet on the south shore of Long Island, New York. It connects the Great South Bay with the Atlantic Ocean, passing between Robert Moses State Park (the western end of Fire Island) on the south and Oak Beach and Captree State Park (the eastern end of Jones Island) on the north. The stated land area and population figures result when this section is subtracted out.^[1] The inlet is directly south of West Islip, the nearest town on the main part of Long Island.

The inlet has evolved over the years due to natural processes, especially longshore drift. Jones Island and Fire Island at one time were connected. The Fire Island Light was at the mouth of the inlet when built in 1858, but is now six miles east of the inlet.

Westhampton Island

Westhampton Island^[2] is the easternmost outer barrier island in the Town of Southampton. The barrier island was part of Fire Island until a nor'easter in 1931 created Moriches Inlet and made Fire Island a proper island. In 1938, Shinnecock Inlet created this fourth barrier island. Cupsogue Beach County Park is located on the western end of the island.

NASA satellite map of the inlet Mastic-inlet-map.jpg — NASA satellite map of the inlet

Moriches Inlet is an inlet connecting Moriches Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The inlet created a geographic oddity whereby the Town of Brookhaven actually has jurisdiction on land immediately west of the village of West Hampton Dunes although Brookhaven land access to it involves a nearly 20 mile drive through Southampton.

Shinnecock Inlet is the easternmost of five major inlets ^[3] connecting bays to the Atlantic Ocean through the narrow 100-mile-long barrier islands that stretch from New York City to Southampton, New York on the south shore of Long Island.

The inlet was formed by the Great Hurricane of 1938 which killed several people when it permanently broke through the island in Hampton Bays, New York.

The inlet is almost directly lined up with the Shinnecock Canal between Shinnecock Bay and the Peconic Bay and saves miles for boaters going to the open Atlantic. Consequently, management has been geared to keep the inlet dredged and open. However, maintenance of the inlet has been controversial on grounds that it causes beach erosion on Fire Island.

Great South Bay at mid-2007 sunset FireIslandSummerDrawsToAClose.jpg — Great South Bay at mid-2007 sunset

Sources

Related Research Articles

Babylon is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Located on Long Island, the town population was 214,191 as of the 2014 census. Parts of Jones Beach Island, Captree Island and Fire Island are in the southernmost part of the town. It borders Nassau County to the West, and the Atlantic Ocean to the South. At its westernmost point, its location is approximately 20 miles (32 km) from New York City at the Queens border, and approximately 30 miles (48 km) from Manhattan. There is also a village of Babylon located within the town.

Great South Bay, actually a lagoon, is situated between Long Island and Fire Island, in the State of New York. It is approximately 45 miles (72 km) long and protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire Island, a barrier island, as well as the eastern end of Jones Beach Island and Captree Island.

Jones Beach Island island in the United States of America

Jones Beach Island is one of the outer barrier islands off the southern coast of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. It is named for Major Thomas Jones, who first came to Long Island in 1692, where he proceeded to build the island's first brick house near Massapequa. Jones built a whaling station on Jones Island near the present site of Jones Beach State Park in 1700. Jones Beach Island is sometimes referred to as Oak Beach Island and is the former home of the infamous Oak Beach Inn.

Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the south shore of the mainland of Long Island. The island is approximately 31 miles (50 km) long and varies between 520 and 1,310 feet wide. Its land area is 9.6 square miles. Fire Island is part of Suffolk County, New York. It lies within the towns of Babylon, Islip, and Brookhaven, containing two villages and a number of hamlets. All parts of the island not within village limits are part of the Fire Island census-designated place (CDP), which had a permanent population of 292 at the 2010 United States Census, though that expands to thousands of residents and tourists during the summer months. Since the late 1930's the LGBTQ community has been visiting the island to summer. Every year on the fourth of July hundreds of drag queens board the ferry from Cherry Grove to The Pines in a reenactment of the 1976 act of solidarity now known as the "Invasion of the Pines".

The Robert Moses Causeway is an 8.10-mile (13.04 km)-long parkway in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. The parkway, originally known as the Captree Causeway, connects West Islip on Long Island to the barrier beach islands, such as Captree Island, Jones Beach Island, and the western tip of Fire Island, to the south. It is designated New York State Route 908J (NY 908J), an unsigned reference route. Except south of NY 27A, the road, like most parkways in New York State, is limited to non-commercial traffic.

Captree State Park is a 340-acre (1.4 km²) state park located in the towns of Babylon and Islip in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The park is located south of Captree Island on the easternmost end of Jones Beach Island, and overlooks the Fire Island Inlet and the westernmost section of Fire Island.

The Loop Parkway is a 2.65-mile (4.26 km) parkway in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. It serves the barrier islands south of Long Island itself, beginning on Long Beach Barrier Island at an intersection with Lido Boulevard in Point Lookout. From here, it heads generally east–west across Alder and Meadow islands to an interchange with the Meadowbrook State Parkway on Jones Island, a part of Jones Beach State Park located just north of Jones Beach Island. The islands served by the Loop Parkway are separated by narrow channels of water, all of which connect to Jones Inlet. The parkway is maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and inventoried by the department as New York State Route 908C (NY 908C), an unsigned reference route.

Smith Point County Park is a beachfront park facing the Atlantic Ocean on the east end of Fire Island, along the central south shore of Long Island, near Shirley, New York, US. It is the largest park owned by Suffolk County.

The Ocean Parkway is a 15.59-mile (25.09 km) parkway that traverses Jones Beach Island between Jones Beach State Park and Captree State Park on Long Island, New York, in the United States. It begins at the southern terminus of the Meadowbrook State Parkway and heads east across Jones Beach Island, intersecting the south end of the Wantagh State Parkway before ending just past the southern terminus of the Robert Moses Causeway. The highway is designated New York State Route 909D (NY 909D), an unsigned reference route.

Shinnecock Inlet is the easternmost of five major inlets connecting bays to the Atlantic Ocean through the narrow 100-mile-long (160 km) Outer barrier that stretches from New York City to Southampton, New York on the south shore of Long Island. It splits Westhampton Island from the peninsula extending from Southampton Village. The inlet was formed by the Great Hurricane of 1938 which killed several people when it permanently broke through the island in Hampton Bays, New York. The name comes from the Shinnecock Indian Nation.

The East Rockaway Inlet is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean which separates the Rockaway Peninsula from the barrier island which includes the Nassau County, New York communities of Atlantic Beach, Long Beach and Lido Beach.

Moriches Inlet is an inlet connecting Moriches Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The name Moriches comes from Meritces, a Native American who owned land on Moriches Neck.

Fire Island Inlet is an inlet on the south shore of Long Island, New York, USA.

Cupsogue Beach County Park is a 296-acre (1.20 km²) park at the east end of Fire Island and the west end of Westhampton Island, known locally as Dune Road, one of Long Island's easternmost barrier islands. The park is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Moriches Inlet and Moriches Bay.

Moriches Bay is a lagoon system on the south shore of Long Island, New York. The name Moriches comes from Meritces, a Native American who owned land on Moriches Neck.

Great South Bay Bridge bridge in United States of America

The Great South Bay Bridge is a bridge on the southwest side of Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island. It connects the Robert Moses Causeway from Long Island's mainland over the Great South Bay, connecting to both Captree and Jones Beach Island. It serves as access via the Robert Moses Causeway to both of the downstream crossings, the State Boat Channel Bridge and the Fire Island Inlet Bridge, also leading visitors and on-lookers to either the Fire Island Lighthouse or the Robert Moses State Park.

The Smith Point Bridge is a steel drawbridge located on the south shore of central Long Island, New York.

The State Boat Channel Bridge is a bascule bridge (drawbridge) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It crosses over the Long Island New York State Boat Channel connecting Captree Island and Jones Beach island on Robert Moses Causeway in the Oak Beach–Captree area within the town of Babylon, New York.

In 1938, after the destruction to Fire Island from the Long Island Express hurricane, Robert Moses and W. Earle Andrews, both part of the Long Island State Park Commission, proposed reconstruction of the island. This proposal included an extension of the Ocean Parkway out from its terminus at Captree State Park across Fire Island to Westhampton. This new parkway, which would boast 22 feet (6.7 m) wide roadways, would have connections back to the mainland at Smith Point County Park and Ponquogue with parkway spurs across Shinnecock Bay and the Great South Bay. The new spur at Ponquogue, deemed the Ponquogue Parkway, would have marked the eastern terminus of the new Ocean Parkway extension. The proposal lived until the cut-back to Smith Point County Park in 1962 for environmental issues with such a construction, ending any proposal for a parkway in the area of Hampton Bays.

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External links

Coordinates: 40°37′N73°16′W / 40.62°N 73.26°W / 40.62; -73.26

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[1] US Census Fact Finder

[2] ttp://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:2634469

[3] ttp://www.nd.edu/~adcirc/shinnecock.htm