Little Neck Bay is an embayment in western

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 ...

, New York, off

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

. Little Neck Bay forms the western boundary of the Great Neck Peninsula, the eastern boundary of which is Manhasset Bay. The political boundary between Nassau County and the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

runs through the bay, bordering the neighborhood of Douglaston–Little Neck.

Description

At the entrance to the bay, on the western point – known as Willets Point – is Fort Totten, which was built to protect the entrance to the tidal strait known as the

East River The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, ...

. At the eastern side of the entrance is Elm Point (the end of Steamboat Road in Kings Point). The bay is about a mile wide at the entrance and extends back just under two miles.U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1918) ''United States Coast Pilot'' U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D.C., p. 234 Originally, on the western and southern sides of the bay there were extensive salt marshes. Saddle Rock is located on the eastern side of the bay about half-way in. The bay is shallower than Manhasset Bay, being only deep at the entrance, with most of the back bay being less than deep. Alley Pond Park and Cross Island Parkway are on the southern and southwestern shore, and Alley Creek drains into the bay. Traditionally, the Algonquin who lived around Little Neck Bay when

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

ans came were considered to be from a tribe known as the Matinecock. However, that view has been challenged. Later, from the 1860s through the 1890s, small hard clams (quahogs) from Little Neck Bay were served in the best restaurants of New York and several European capitals. Eventually, the term "littleneck" or "littleneck clam" came to be used as a size category for all hard clams, regardless of origin. Saddle-rock oysters are also found in the bay. The bay was closed to harvesting in 1909 due to pollution."Little Neck Bay" ''Webster's Geographical Dictionary'' (revised edition 1964) G.&C. Merriam Co., Springfield, Mass., p. 622,

References

{{Coord, 40.793, N, 73.763, W, type:waterbody_region:US-NY, display=title Bays of New York (state) Long Island Sound Bodies of water of Nassau County, New York Bays of Queens County, New York Douglaston–Little Neck, Queens

Description

See also

References