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Rockaway Beach is the largest urban beach in the United States, running about seven miles along the Atlantic coast of Queens with a five-mile boardwalk. Its shores sit where the Rockaways' Playland amusement park thrived through most of the twentieth century until it closed in 1987.
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The city's widest shoreline
Rockaway Beach is a slate of sand that runs about seven miles along the Atlantic coast of Queens, with a five-mile boardwalk and park ground totaling 170 acres — by common count the largest urban beach in the United States. The name comes from the beach and its boardwalk, and the whole neighborhood is nicknamed the Irish Riviera for the Irish-American families who settled it. It began as two hamlets, Holland and Hammels, which merged in 1897 into the Village of Rockaway Beach before New York City absorbed the area a year later. The city's first stretch of boardwalk here, between Beach 109th and 126th Streets, went up in 1923.
The rides that packed the shore
For most of the twentieth century this was not just sand; it was a playground. Rockaways' Playland, an amusement park created beside the boardwalk at the start of the twentieth century by roller-coaster designer LaMarcus Thompson, grew into one of the region's most beloved ride parks, drawing 175 million visitors between 1928 and 1970. People came by train and ferry for the coasters and the million-dollar midway, and the beach teemed. The park outlived the era, closed in 1987 when insurance costs rose too far, and the rides came down — leaving the beach itself, broad and empty, as the main attraction once again.
What to do with a day there
Spend the morning on empty sand nearest Jacob Riis Park, the western section run by the National Park Service, then follow the boardwalk east through the surf crowds. Rockaway is the city's surfing capital, so watch the wave riders early and let the boardwalk shops fill you for the afternoon. Head back west for sunset over the Atlantic, where the rollers flatten to gold. Ride the ferry home from the west end in summer and watch Manhattan's towers rise out of the haze — this is how the Rockaway used to open for business, and it still works.