Smith Point County Park is a beachfront park facing the Atlantic Ocean on the east end of

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Lon ...

, along the central south shore of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

, near

Shirley, New York Shirley is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. At the 2010 census, the population of Shirley was 27,854. Shirley is the western terminus of Atlantic Crossing 1, a major submarine telecommunication ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is the largest park owned by Suffolk County. The park derives its name from Smith Point, a peninsula on the Long Island mainland that extends into Bellport Bay. The peninsula was named for

William "Tangier" Smith William "Tangier" Smith (February 2, 1655 – February 18, 1705) was a governor of Tangier, on the coast of Morocco, and an early settler of New York who owned more than of Atlantic Ocean waterfront property in central Long Island in New York S ...

, who in the 17th century owned of ocean-front property in the Manor of St. George. The park is not on the Smith Point peninsula.

Overview

Smith Point Park, located on the

barrier island 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 ...

, is a haven for sportsmen, surfers and beach lovers. An extremely popular facility, the park has white sands, rolling Atlantic surf and an adjoining camping facility that attract both Suffolk County residents and tourists each summer. Reservations are required for all the sites in the campground. All sites have water, and many have electric hookups and sewers. Outer beach camping is available on first come, first served basis, beach conditions permitting. A nationally recognized team of

lifeguard A lifeguard is a rescuer who supervises the safety and rescue of swimmers, surfers, and other water sports participants such as in a swimming pool, water park A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features ...

s makes Smith Point its home base, providing ocean visitors with safety protection. With permits, people may drive off-road vehicles on the western portion of the outer beach. All beach-goers are advised to respect the protective fencing that marks nest sites of endangered

shorebirds 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

inhabiting the

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wor ...

and

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

beaches.

Special events are scheduled throughout the summer months at Smith Point County Park.

William Floyd Parkway County Route 46 (CR 46) is a major county road in eastern Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. It runs south-to-north from CR 75 in Smith Point County Park (part of the Fire Island National Seashore) to New York State Ro ...

provides access to the beach and rest of the park. It crosses Narrow Bay on the two-lane Smith Point Bridge. Large parking fields with tunnels to the seashore are available at the end of the Parkway. A jeep road (with access by permit only) extends to the end of the island. This road as well as the main road along the beach (Suffolk CR 75) was originally intended to be part of the Ocean Parkway Extension. Suffolk Transit's 7E route served the beach on a seasonal basis, connecting it with the Mastic–Shirley

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average week ...

station on the Montauk Branch, until it was discontinued in October 2016. From 1983 until the late 1990s Suffolk Transit also ran the S74 bus during the summer from Smith Haven Mall to Smith Point. The park extends from the east end of the

Wilderness portion of the National Seashore to a strip of Town of Brookhaven parkland running between this park and the west side of Cupsogue Beach County Park which occupies both ends of

Moriches Inlet 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.The Indian Place-Names on Long Island and Islands Adjacent, with Their Prob ...

. Smith Point is a great starting point to explore

Fire Island National Seashore Fire Island National Seashore (FINS) is a United States National Seashore that protects a section of Fire Island, an approximately long and wide barrier island separated from Long Island by the Great South Bay. The island is part of New York S ...

and its wilderness areas. A favorite hike is to walk a mile or so behind the dunes on Burma Road and back on the ocean side. The old road leads up to Old Inlet. You can return with an ocean-side walk. Along the way you can spot deer, pick beach plums during the right season, listen to birds and explore several pine groves. The Fire Island Wilderness Visitor Center is located at the southernmost end of

, adjacent to Smith Point County Park. This is

's eastern gateway to the

Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness Otis may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Otis (Superman), in the films ''Superman'' and ''Superman II'' and related DC Comics media ** Otis Graves, in the TV series ''Supergirl'' * Otis (''The Walking Dead''), in the Image Comics ...

, the only federally designated wilderness area in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

TWA Flight 800 International Memorial

On July 17, 1996,

TWA Flight 800 Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA800) was a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31pm. EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Internationa ...

, a Boeing 747-131 en route from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Paris, France Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

and

Rome, Italy , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, crashed at sea away from the park; all passengers and crew were killed. The TWA Flight 800 International Memorial was dedicated in a parcel immediately adjoining the main pavilion at the park on July 14, 2004. Funds for the memorial were raised by the Families of TWA Flight 800 Association. The memorial includes landscaped grounds and flags from the 13 countries of the victims. The curved black

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

memorial has names engraved on one side and an illustration on the other of a wave releasing 230 seagulls into the sky. In July 2006 the association added an abstract design of a lighthouse in black granite designed by Harry Edward Seaman, who had lost a cousin in the crash. The

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

sits above a tomb holding many of the victims' personal belongings.

Hurricane Sandy

High tides and storm surge associated with

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

in October 2012 caused several new

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine ...

s to form within and near Smith Point County Park. One breach occurred on the east end of the park itself near Moriches Inlet, while a second breach occurred further west on Fire Island at Old Inlet within the

. A third breach occurred across Moriches Inlet just inside of Cupsogue Beach County Park. Both breaches that occurred outside of the wilderness area, including the breach within Smith Point County Park, were quickly closed by multimillion-dollar dredging projects. As of 2015, the third breach at Old Inlet remains open while

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

officials debate whether to tamper with an event inside a

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

. That breach was wide in April 2013. Breaches at Old Inlet have occurred before and closed on their own.

References

External links

Smith Point County Park (Suffolk County Department of Parks)
{{Fire Island , state=expanded Beaches of Suffolk County, New York Fire Island, New York Parks in Suffolk County, New York Brookhaven, New York Landforms of Suffolk County, New York

Overview

TWA Flight 800 International Memorial

Hurricane Sandy

See also

References

External links