Jones Inlet is located at the westernmost end of the long Jones Beach barrier island that runs along

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

's south shore. The inlet separates

Jones Beach State Park Jones Beach State Park (colloquially "Jones Beach") is a state park in the U.S. state of New York. It is located in southern Nassau County on Jones Beach Island, a barrier island linked to Long Island by the Meadowbrook State Parkway, Wantag ...

's West End from the community of Point Lookout and connects

South Oyster Bay South Oyster Bay or East Bay is a lagoon

with the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. In 2006, the inlet handled approximately 10,000 tons of commercial tonnage. Shifting sand bars and shallow waters have made the inlet treacherous for boaters to navigate, which prompted New York State to allocate $7.6 million of funding for the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

to dredge the inlet in 2008. In addition to improving navigational safety for vessels, the sand dredged from the inlet was pumped onto the Point Lookout shoreline to help mitigate the effects of

beach erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward r ...

. The inlet was previously dredged in 1995-1996. It was also dredged in 2014 and 2022. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

Station Jones Beach is located near the east side of the inlet on Jones Beach Island.

References

{{coord, 40, 34, 57, N, 73, 34, 40, W, display=title Inlets of New York (state) Hempstead, New York Bodies of water of Nassau County, New York