JONES BEACH STATE PARK

'Jones Beach State Park' 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 Parkway and Wantagh Parkway across the Great South Bay.
The park is renowned for its excellent beaches, 6.5 mi (10 km) in length, facing the open Atlantic Ocean and furnishes one of the most popular summer recreational locations for the New York City area. It is the most popular and heavily visited beach on the East Coast, estimated that over eight million people per year visit the Beach.
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.^[1]

Contents

Development by Robert Moses

Transportation

Facilities

Entertainment

Trivia

See also

References

External links

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. 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 is named after Major Thomas Jones of Massapequa, a Long Island landowner in the early 1700s.
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.

Transportation

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, 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 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 can be used to park for free. The parking fees are usually charged until sundown. 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.

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. New construction of a multimillion ($30,000,000) dollar restaurant and catering hall are anticipated to be completed in 2008. The state will retain ownership and lease it for forty years to Donald Trump and Steven Carl, currently owner of Carlyle on the Green. It is scheduled to open in about 2009.[1]
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.
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.

Entertainment

Jones Beach Theater is host to many shows, including popular concerts. It is directly across the street from the ocean and is outdoors in an open natural environment.
A half a mile north of the beach 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.
For the past three years, Jones Beach has hosted the New York Air Show during the last weekend of May.The air show is one of the largest in the United States, hosting 403,000 people over two-days during the 2006 air show.

Trivia

★ Jones Beach Parking Fields can accommodate over 23,500 cars.

★ 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 tollbooth scene in the film The Godfather was filmed at Jones Beach's Meadowbrook Toll Plaza.

★ The 1949 film ''The Girl from Jones Beach'' [2] starred Virginia Mayo and Ronald Reagan.

See also

★ Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, a concert venue at Jones Beach State Park

★ Jones Beach Island

★ Robert Moses State Park (Long Island)

★ List of New York state parks

References

1. http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ny-etwiki0417-pg,0,4313909.photogallery?coll=ny-entertainment-promo&index=3

External links

★ Jones Beach State Park Official Site

★ JonesBeach.com

★ Jones Beach Events

★ Jones Beach Airshow Official Site

★ Robert Moses and the Development of Jones Beach

★ Long Island's Official Online Community & Jones Beach Discussion Group

★ Photo of Jones Beach Water Tower

★ Jones Beach News, events and information

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★ Hybrid satellite image/street map from WikiMapia