Jacob Riis Park

Jacob Riis Park is part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and managed by the National Park Service (NPS). It was the site of Rockaway Naval Air Station, significant for its relationship to the famous NC-4 crossing of the Atlantic. This historic crossing ultimately changed commercial aviation. As we see it today, Jacob Riis Park was built by the government to give New York City's burgeoning immigrant population a place to escape tenement life and the opportunity to reconnect with the natural beauty and recreation of the sea at the 'resort for the common man.'