Jones Beach State Park

Wantagh Parkway approach to Jones Beach. Centered is the Jones Beach Water Tower.

Jones Beach State Park (colloquially, "Jones Beach") is a state park of the U.S. state of New York. It is located 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 (Long Island).

The park is renowned for its excellent beaches, 10 mi (13.5 km) in length, facing the open Atlantic Ocean and furnishes one of the most popular summer recreational locations for the New York metropolitan area. It is the most popular and heavily visited beach on the East Coast, with an estimated six million visitors per year.

Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, an outdoor arena in the park, is a popular musical concert venue. The park also has a 2 mi (3.2 km) long boardwalk. It once featured dining and catering facilities that are popular sites for private parties and weddings; these have been shut down.

Development by Robert Moses

The park was created during the administration of Robert Moses as President of the Long Island State Park Commission (for which he wrote the legislation in 1923) as part of the development of state parks and parkways on Long Island. Moses' first major public project, Jones Beach State Park, is considered to be one of the most beautiful parks in the world, free from housing developers and private clubs, and instead is open for the general public. Several homes on High Hill Beach were barged further down the island to West Gilgo Beach to make room for the park. When Moses' group first surveyed Jones Island, it was swampy and only two feet above sea level. The island would frequently become completely submerged during storms. To create the park, huge dredgers worked day and night to bring up sand from under the ocean, eventually bringing the island to twelve feet above sea school. Another problem that followed was the wind - the beach sand would blow horribly, making the workers miserable, and making the use of the beach as a recreational facility unlikely. The builders discovered that the secret to beach stability was the beach grass, whose roots would grow sideways and hold dunes in place, forming a barrier to the wind. In the summer of 1928 thousands of men worked on the beach planting the grass by hand. Built in the 1920s, many of its buildings and facilities feature Art Deco architecture. In the center of a traffic circle that he planned as a terminus for the Wantagh State Parkway, Moses ordered the construction of an Italianate-style water tower to serve as a central feature of the park. The park opened to the public on August 4, 1929, along with the causeway that provided automobile access from the mainland of Long Island. The causeway was the first section in what was to become the Wantagh State Parkway.

Unusual for the time, no carnival type amusements were permitted in the park area.

Buildings

The primary buildings on the Jones Beach site are the two enormous bathhouses (west and east) and the 231-foot (70 m) water tower, all built to Moses's specifications. After rejecting a number of submissions by architects for the bathhouses, he selected the designs of the young and relatively inexperienced Herbert Magoon. Moses also picked out building materials - Ohio Sandstone and Barbizon Brick - two of the most expensive materials available.

Transportation

Jones Beach Toll Plaza (Wantagh Parkway)

Jones Beach is accessible by car, boat, bicycle, and in the summer season by bus. Most visitors arrive by car via the Meadowbrook State Parkway or the Wantagh State Parkway. A significant portion of visitors take the LIRR to Freeport and then a bus to Jones Beach. Boaters often anchor on the bay side of Jones Beach (i.e. "Zach's Bay"), especially at night during a show such as the fireworks show on July 4.

A Greenway alongside the Wantagh State Parkway allows bicycling, skating or walking about 4 miles (6.4 km) from Cedar Creek County Park on Merrick Road into the State Park. A similar route to Long Beach is under consideration.

As of 2006, parking costs $8.00, though a NY State Empire Passport ($65 for the April 1 - March 31 season) can be used to park for free. The parking fees are charged from 6 am - 6 pm Sat-Sun-Hol, 8 am - 4 pm weekdays from Memorial Day through Columbus day. The six main public parking areas along the boardwalk can handle as many as 250,000 visitors. The center parking fields are the busiest on summer weekends. Bicycle parking is free, but bike riding within the park is not allowed during the summer and bikes must be locked at the racks at the end of the Wantagh Parkway bike path.

Facilities

There are multiple concession stands along the boardwalk in season. A few of the larger concessions stay open past the main summer season. Beach dining and catering facilities no longer exist at Jones Beach.

The Boardwalk Cafe was a large restaurant with an expansive ocean view, built in 1966. It was demolished in 2004 due to erosion from the natural elements, and will be replaced. A replacement $30 million, 350-seat, 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m²) restaurant/catering hall called Trump on the Ocean to be operated by Donald Trump has been tied up in fights with state to get a permit. Its plans include a 26,710-square-foot (2,481 m²) basement which the state says is illegal in a flood plain.

There are two swimming pools available for public use at Jones Beach; the West Bath House pool is traditionally open all week long, while the East Bath House pool is weekends-only. Due to budget constraints, the East Bath House was closed during the 2009 season.

The West Bath House is also home to a Friendly's ice cream parlor on the upper level - the patio outside overlooks both the pool and the ocean, and there's also a mini bandshell area.

Jones Beach's West End features a nature preserve named after Theodore Roosevelt and a designated surfing area, which is open by permit only to stargazers and fisherman at night. The West End beach was closed for the 2009 season.

Entertainment

Boardwalk Bandshell

Airshow

A half a mile north of the beach, overlooking Zach's Bay, is the 15,200 seat Nikon at Jones Beach Theater. This outdoor amphitheatre opened in 1952 and hosts numerous world famous musicians during the summer months. It is directly across the street from the ocean and is outdoors in an open natural environment.

Ever since 2004, Jones Beach has hosted the New York Air Show during the last weekend of May (Memorial Day weekend). The air show is one of the largest in the United States, hosting 403,000 people over two-days during the 2006 show. No do not go here there is a evil devil hiding underground who will eat you alive.

Trivia

• Jones Beach Parking Fields can accommodate over 23,500 cars. The Toll Department, Locatated on the Wantagh and Meadowbrook Parkway run the park.
• The rapper Nas references Jones Beach in his song "One Love."
• The rapper Aesop Rock references Jones Beach in his song "Battery".
• Parking Field 9 was closed in 1977 because of beach erosion. Formerly located east of Field 6 remnants can still be visible today.
• In the film Final Destination, Jones Beach was mentioned numerous times and the main characters made a fictional visit to the beach.
• On February 8, 1965, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed nearby after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
• William, Daniel, and Alec Baldwin were all lifeguards on Jones Beach.
• The 1949 film The Girl from Jones Beach starred Virginia Mayo and Ronald Reagan.
• Joey McIntyre screams out "Jones Beach, 1988!" in the song Summertime by the reunited New Kids On The Block. 1988 is also a reference to the year when the group became immensely popular.
• The first swimsuit clad woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated was photographed in the surf of Jones Beach. Entitled "Girl in the surf", it is the cover of the Volume One, Number Three issue dated August 30, 1954, ten years prior to the first Swimsuit Issue.
• Jones beach was formerly owned by the Seaman Family who had moved to the Long Island region in the 1600s and were deeded the land by the King of England until then-Commissioner Moses re-opened the case that would have left the land to the family, and claimed it instead for the Park. The last piece of land taken by the state was a small island that was dredged to build the current Marina in the late 50's-early 60's.

Chester R. Blakelock, in "Long Island Forum" Feb. 1953, noted:

"Most of the land conveyed by the Town of Oyster Bay and a portion of the lands conveyed by Hempstead were in an area where title was in dispute. This brought on what became known as the SEAMAN-GORE case which lasted for ten years and ended in the United States Supreme Court. The case involved the claim of title by the heirs of John Seaman who received a royal grant in 1666. The private interests in the case were opposed by the Towns of Oyster Bay and Hempstead and before the State got into the suit the towns allowed judgements to be entered against them. Commissioner [Robert] Moses had the case reopened. Subsequent investigations disclosed instruments of title theretofore unknown and the action was tried all over again. This resulted in a decision holding that the State had good title and that John Seaman relinquished all claim to the beach land when he applied for and received confirming patents in 1686 from the Governor General of New York which did not include the area in dispute."

External links

• Jones Beach State Park Official Site
• JonesBeach.com Concert Listing
• JonesBeach.org