The Outer Barrier, also known as the Long Island and New York City barrier islands, refers to the string of barrier islands that divide the

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

s south of

Long Island, New York 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 ...

from 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 ...

. These islands include Long Beach Barrier Island, Barnum Island, Jones Beach Island,

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. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy once again divided Fire Island into two islands. Together, these two isl ...

and Westhampton Island. The outer barrier extends along the South Shore of Long Island, from the Rockaway Peninsula in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to the east end of Shinnecock Bay in Suffolk County. The lagoons enclosed by the barrier islands are Jamaica Bay, Brosewere Bay, Hewlett Bay, Reynolds Channel, Middle Bay,

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...

, South Oyster Bay, Great South Bay, and arms of the Great South Bay that have their own geographic names: Great Cove, Nicoll Bay, Patchogue Bay, Bellport Bay, Narrow Bay, Moriches Bay, Quantuck Bay, Tiana Bay, and Shinnecock Bay. East Rockaway Inlet, Jones Inlet, Fire Island Inlet, Old Inlet, Moriches Inlet, and Shinnecock Inlet pierce the barrier, forming the individual sandy islands. The resort communities of Atlantic Beach, Long Beach, and Westhampton Beach; the Fire Island National Seashore, Robert Moses State Park, Jones Beach State Park, and other recreational areas are found there. The low-lying islands are subject to wave erosion, and, during storms, they are sometimes inundated and cut through.

The islands

New York City islands

Coney Island, Plumb Beach, Barren Island, several smaller islands in Jamaica Bay, and parts of what is now the Rockaway peninsula formerly comprised the westernmost Outer Barrier islands. Of these, Coney Island was the westernmost island. Most of these islands were either connected to mainland Long Island or combined with each other in the early 20th century.

Long Beach Barrier Island

Long Beach Barrier Island lies off the south shore of

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 ...

. The island is shared by the hamlet of Atlantic Beach to the west, the city of Long Beach and the hamlet of Lido Beach in the central part of the island, and the hamlet of Point Lookout at the eastern end of the island. (The three hamlets — Atlantic Beach, Lido Beach, and Point Lookout — are part of the town of Hempstead, New York.) Within its section of the barrier island, the city of Long Beach spans the entire north-south width of the island, fronting on both Reynolds Channel to the north and the

to the south. A

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable b ...

, the Long Beach Bridge, connects it to Island Park, a small island which lies between Long Beach and the mainland of Long Island. To the west, the Atlantic Beach Bridge connects the island to Lawrence on Long Island. The Loop Parkway, located to the east where Lido Beach and Point Lookout border one another, connects the island to Jones Beach. Atlantic Beach and Long Beach Aeriel View

Atlantic Beach and Long Beach Aeriel View

Jones Beach Island

Jones Beach Island is a

barrier island Barrier islands are a Coast#Landforms, coastal landform, a type of dune, dune system and sand island, where an area of sand has been formed by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of an ...

off the southern coast of

in the U.S. state of New York. It is named for the father of historian Thomas Jones. It is sometimes referred to as Oak Beach Island, and the former home of the infamous Oak Beach Inn. It is separated from Long Island by Great South Bay. The island straddles the county line between Nassau and

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

counties and includes the

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

s of Gilgo, Oak Beach, and Captree. The southern side of the island is known for its beaches that face the open

. Jones Beach State Park, on the western tip of the island is a summer recreational destination for the

area. It is accessible from Long Island on its western end by the Meadowbrook Parkway to Merrick, New York, the Loop Parkway to Long Beach, New York and the Wantagh Parkway to Wantagh, New York. Its eastern end is linked to Babylon, New York as well as to Fire Island, New York by the Robert Moses Causeway via the Great South Bay Bridge and the State Boat Channel Bridge. The Ocean Parkway connects all three

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

s and runs the length of the island, while The Fire Island Inlet Bridge continues on the Robert Moses Causeway finding its way to the New York's Fire Island on the

Fire Island

Fire Island is a

, approximately 31 miles (50 km) long and varying between approximately 0.1 mile (160 m) to 0.25 mile (400 m) wide. Fire Island passes through southern

Suffolk County, New York Suffolk County ( ) is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of New York, constituting the eastern two-thirds of Long Island. It is bordered to its west by Nassau County, to its east by Gardiners Bay and the open Atlantic Ocean, to its no ...

, and is southeast of

separated from the main land by the Great South Bay in the U.S. state of New York, running approximately SW to NE. The land area is 8.687 sq. mi. (22.5 km²), and a permanent population of 491 people was reported as of the 2000 census. (There are hundreds of thousands of summertime residents, groupers and daytrippers.) The island is composed of three communities, as defined by the Census Bureau. The largest of these is Fire Island (CDP), which is unincorporated and stretches through the southern portion of the towns of

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

, Islip, and Brookhaven. There are several ocean front communities such as, Davis Park and Watch Hill that are on the eastern side of the Great south bay. Fire Island has a variety of ocean front communities that can be reached by private boat, or seasonal

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

service from

's mainland.

has a 2000 census population of 310 inhabitants. There are also two villages in the Islip section of the island, Saltaire (pop. 43) and Ocean Beach (pop. 138). In addition, a part of Fire Island CDP is not even on the island, but on a separate island adjacent to West Hampton Dunes. Fire Island Inlet is an inlet on the south shore of Long Island, New York. It connects the Great South Bay with the

, passing between Robert Moses State Park (the western end of Fire Island) on the south and Oak Beach and Captree State Park (the eastern end of Jones Island) on the north. The stated land area and population figures result when this section is subtracted out. The inlet is directly south of West Islip, the nearest town on the main part of Long Island. The inlet has evolved over the years due to natural processes, especially longshore drift. Jones Island and

at one time were connected. The Fire Island Light was at the mouth of the inlet when built in 1858, but is now six miles east of the inlet.

Westhampton Island

Westhampton Island is the easternmost outer barrier island in the Town of Southampton. The barrier island was part of

until a

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below) is a large-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. Typically, such storms originate as a low ...

in 1931 created Moriches Inlet and made Fire Island a proper island. The 1938 New England hurricane created Shinnecock Inlet and this Westhampton Island. Cupsogue Beach County Park is located on the western end of the island. Moriches Inlet is an

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, 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 ...

connecting Moriches Bay and the

. The inlet created a geographic oddity whereby the Town of Brookhaven actually has jurisdiction on land immediately west of the village of West Hampton Dunes although Brookhaven land access to it involves a nearly 20 mile drive through Southampton. Shinnecock Inlet is the easternmost of five major inlets connecting bays to the

through the narrow 100-mile-long barrier islands that stretch from

to Southampton, New York on the south shore of

. The inlet was formed by the Great Hurricane of 1938 which killed several people when it permanently broke through the island in Hampton Bays, New York. The inlet is almost directly lined up with the Shinnecock Canal between Shinnecock Bay and the Peconic Bay and saves miles for boaters going to the open Atlantic. Consequently, management has been geared to keep the inlet dredged and open. However, maintenance of the inlet has been controversial on grounds that it causes beach erosion on Fire Island.

References

External links

Captree State Park

Jones Beach State Park

New York State Parks: Robert Moses State Park - Long Island

Ocean Parkway article from NYCROADS Website
{{authority control Islands of Nassau County, New York Barrier islands of New York (state) Beaches of Nassau County, New York Fire Island, New York Robert Moses projects State parks of New York (state)