Early history In September 1609,
Henry Hudson and his crew were the first Europeans recorded as seeing the area of
the Rockaways and
Jamaica Bay. Hudson was attempting to find the
Northwest Passage. On September 11, Hudson sailed into the
Upper New York Bay, and the following day began a journey up what is now called the
Hudson River in his honor. By 1639, the Mohegan tribe sold most of the Rockaways to the
Dutch West India Company. In 1664, the English defeated the Dutch colony and took over their lands in present-day New York. In 1685, the band chief,
Tackapoucha, and the English governor of the province agreed to sell the Rockaways to a Captain Palmer for 31 pounds sterling. The Rockaway Peninsula was originally designated as part of the
Town of Hempstead, then a part of
Queens County. Palmer and the Town of Hempstead disputed over who owned Rockaway, so in 1687 he sold the land to
Richard Cornell, an iron master from
Flushing. Cornell and his family lived on a
homestead on what is now Central Avenue, near the shore of the
Atlantic Ocean. At his death, Cornell was buried in a small family cemetery,
Cornell Cemetery. Several wealthy New Yorkers created the Rockaway Association, which brought many of the lots and started developing resorts in the area in 1833. In the 19th century, people traveled to the Rockaways by horse-drawn carriages or on horseback. A
ferry powered by steam sailed from
Lower Manhattan to
Brooklyn. In 1878, the eastern community of
Bayswater was laid out. One of Bayswater's early developers was
William Trist Bailey, who had purchased the property. In 1893, much of
Hog Island, a small sandbar island off the coast of Far Rockaway washed away in a hurricane. The remainder of the island eroded by 1902. Plates, along with older artifacts, still wash up along the shore of Rockaway Beach. shows
Father Knickerbocker pulling Rockaway into New York City The Rockaway Peninsula was originally part of the
Town of Hempstead, then a part of
Queens County. In 1897, the central peninsular towns of Hammels (named after a local landowner, Louis Hammels) (the remainder of Hempstead Town, plus the two other eastern Queens townships of
North Hempstead and
Oyster Bay did not become part of the borough and ultimately split from Queens with the formation of neighboring
Nassau County in 1899). The village of Rockaway Park became incorporated into the
City of Greater New York on January 1, 1898.
Early 20th century In the early 1900s, a new railroad station opened up the community and the rest of the peninsula to a broad range of the population. The wealthy no longer had a monopoly on the peninsula, and various amusement parks, stores, and resort hotels attracted people from all over the city to spend a day or a whole summer there. Much of the area was developed by
James S. Remsen and
William Wainwright. In this era, it became known as "New York's Playground". Around this time,
Breezy Point in the Rockaways began as a neighborhood of summer beach
bungalows; this kind of house became the most popular type of housing during the summer months. Even today, some of these remain, converted to provide modern amenities, although the vast majority were razed in urban renewal during the 1960s. In 1900, a New York State judge ordered that the land west of Rockaway Park be put up for auction.
Belle Harbor and adjacent
Neponsit were bought by Edward P. Hatch, who sold it to the West Rockaway Land Company in 1907. Residential lots in Belle Harbor were auctioned off in 1915. Belle Harbor was named by the president of the West Rockaway Land Company,
Frederick J. Lancaster, who had earlier developed the Rockaway neighborhood of
Edgemere. In 1905, before Lancaster acquired the land, a group of men wishing to form a yacht club entered into a grant agreement with the West Rockaway Land Company. The group, which had named itself the Belle Harbor Yacht Club, bought property from the company for $4,000. The agreement included 200 square feet of land and thirty plots of upland. That same year, the group received corporation status from the
State of New York and by 1908 began participating in its first interclub ocean races with some of the city's other yacht clubs. A new street system, based on numbered streets with the prefix "Beach", was laid out for the Rockaways in 1912 to help development. The central-peninsula neighborhood of
Hammels, along with the eastern communities of
Arverne and
Far Rockaway, tried to secede from the city several times, complaining that consolidation had brought high taxes and poor services. In 1915 and 1917, a bill approving the secession passed in the legislature but was vetoed by then-Mayor
John Purroy Mitchel. Rockaway's famous amusement park,
Rockaways' Playland, was built in 1901 and quickly became a major attraction for people around the region. With its growing popularity, concern over swimming etiquette became a problem and early in 1904, the Captain of the
NYPD, Louis Kreuscher, issued rules for those using the beach, censoring the bathing suits to be worn, where photographs could be taken, and specifying that women in bathing suits were not allowed to leave the beachfront. The park was grand for its time. One of its most popular attractions, the Atom Smasher roller coaster, would be featured at the beginning of
This is Cinerama, a pre-
IMAX type movie, in 1952. An
Olympic-size swimming pool and a million-dollar midway also were built within the amusement park; they would serve the community for more than 80 years. It was a popular place for New York families until 1985, when insurance costs and competition from major regional parks made it impossible to continue operations.
Robert Moses era as seen from Rockaway branch on the peninsula In the 1930s,
Robert Moses came to power as
New York City's Parks Commissioner and his extensive road and transportation projects were both a benefit and a disaster for the neighborhood. As commissioner, Moses ordered the construction of the
Marine Parkway Bridge and the
Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge. The bridges were completed in 1937 and 1939 respectively. The Marine Parkway Bridge was built farther west on the peninsula between
Jacob Riis Park and
Breezy Point linking the isolated communities to Brooklyn. The Cross Bay Bridge landed in the middle of the neighborhood of Rockaway Beach. The construction of the two bridges started to transform the neighborhood and the rest of the peninsula into a more year-round residential area or
commuter town, as people had a more convenient way to travel to and from work. The conversion of the
Rockaway Beach LIRR branch to the
Rockaway subway line also brought an increase to Rockaway's permanent residents.
Robert Caro, who wrote
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, stated "Why did the Rockaways end up with so much government-financed housing? Largely because Robert Moses wanted it there." Although the bridges were intended to improve the Rockaways, Moses' other projects both directly and indirectly hurt the community. One such failed project was the planned construction of the
Shore Front Parkway in the 1950s and 1960s. Wanting to connect
Staten Island to
the Hamptons, Moses focused on making a highway through the Rockaway Peninsula. His idea was to connect the Marine Parkway Bridge with the
Atlantic Beach Bridge, which connected the Rockaway Peninsula to
Nassau County. The plan would also provide an extension midway through to include the Cross Bay Bridge. Many feared that such an extensive project would do more harm to the peninsula than good and pointed to the community displacement that had happened in the
South Bronx because of Moses' roadway construction Even though Moses never got to make his highway, he did leave his mark. A piece of the planned parkway that ran west to east in the
Rockaway Park and Rockaway Beach neighborhoods was constructed and opened in 1939. Houses were cut in half to build the four-lane street. Some of these houses are still standing today. The existing, still unfinished street is locally known as the "road from nowhere to nowhere" because it does not have any relevant connections to any other area or highway. Robert Moses' construction of other recreational areas and facilities, such as the
New York Aquarium and
Jones Beach State Park, indirectly affected the neighborhood as well. These more modern recreational facilities lured tourists and beachgoers away from the peninsula. With fewer customers, businesses and hotels closed, and by the 1950s, the area had fallen into economic decline. The transition from a summer vacationing area to a full-time residential neighborhood had taken its toll.
Late 20th century in
Rockaway Beach After
World War II, several large
public housing projects were built in the region as part of Moses' overall citywide neighborhood redevelopment plans, but these eventually became hotbeds of crime and related social pathologies. This provoked a backlash from some of the peninsula's more established residents (many of whom are of
Irish Catholic heritage). A strong Jewish community (most of whose members are
Ashkenazi Jews) also exists in and around Far Rockaway. For example, the city constructed the Hammel Houses in
Rockaway Beach, one of the many
urban renewal efforts that dominated the community and much of its eastern neighbors in the last half of the 20th century. The
New York City Housing Authority purchased the land in 1952 on the north side of the elevated track. In 1964, the Authority decided to demolish and rebuild the entire area and turn it into a park. In 1960, Breezy Point was sold to the Atlantic Improvement State Corporation for $17 million; the residents of the 3,500-home community purchased half of the land for about $11 million and formed the Breezy Point Cooperative. The construction of apartment buildings commenced in the late 1960s and was halted by City ordinance. At the same time, much of the housing in the area was converted into year-round housing for low-income residents, and some of the bungalows were used as public housing. In Arverne, the New York City Planning Commission approved the designation of a Arverne renewal area in 1964. However, for thirty years, the area went mostly undeveloped. In 1998, Broad Channel's
Labor Day parade included a float that parodied the racially motivated dragging death of an African American man,
James Byrd Jr. Entitled "Black to the Future - Broad Channel in 2098", the float carried white men wearing
blackface and
Afro wigs, including two city firefighters and a city police officer who were fired from their jobs after their participation came to light. They sued the city for wrongful termination, and their claims were upheld in federal district court in 2003. Residents expressed support for and relief at the ruling, hoping that an end to the court battle would help to rehabilitate the image of the town. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the ruling in 2006, holding that the firings could stand.
21st century development After decades of grand redevelopment plans that fell through — for casinos, sports arenas, and other projects — planning began in 2002 for a large vacant section between Rockaway Beach and Arverne. By 2004, people were moving into the first completed buildings of the Arverne-By-the-Sea development. By 2012, the development included some 2,300 homes. That sparked nearby retail development. Far Rockaway Shopping Center, in downtown Far Rockaway between the
Far Rockaway subway station, and the
Far Rockaway LIRR station, got its first new store in decades. Phase I of construction was completed in 2011; Phase II was begun in 2006. Elsewhere, along the beach, zoning laws written decades ago for the hotel trade have allowed developers to build high-rises alongside the smaller old and new houses. In response, some communities have approved rezoning plans for their neighborhoods to stop "out of character" development. Opponents also contend that due to the rapidly growing population, the current infrastructure is inadequate and that there are environmental issues to consider. Those in favor of the development, however, contend that the development will help spur economic development and that the infrastructure cannot be upgraded until the population has reached a more noticeable level. Furthermore, some developers have questioned the legality of "down zoning". On August 14, 2008, however, a rezoning plan that limits the size of some buildings was approved by the
New York City Council for five communities on the peninsula covering 280 blocks. The communities that were included are
Rockaway Park,
Rockaway Beach,
Somerville,
Edgemere, and
Far Rockaway. With more and more people moving to the city, the Rockaways become a destination for adventurous day trippers. The area appears in
New York Magazine's 2007 spring travel issue as a place for "male bonding" and to "scuba dive for sunken ships" via Sheepshead Bay's Jeanne II docks at Pier Five. Today, the area still draws crowds during the summer with well-tended beaches.
Jacob Riis Park and
Fort Tilden are situated towards the western end of the peninsula, and are part of the
Gateway National Recreational Area, which was created in 1972 as one of the first urban national parks. The long
Rockaway Boardwalk and of sandy beaches, fully accessible by the subway, make this a popular summer day trip for New York City residents. Toward the western end of the boardwalk, several portions of the beach are fenced off to preserve the nesting habitat for several species of
terns and
plovers, making for a unique urban
birdwatching locale. After 2010, there was a major resurgence in the Rockaways' popularity. Various media began reporting on artists such as
Andrew VanWyngarden, co-founder of popular psychedelic rock band
MGMT, purchasing homes on the beach. The peninsula was dubbed "
Williamsburg on the Rockaways" because some surfers from there began to spend whole summers out in the Rockaways. A number of businesses that cater to them have become popular among these down for the day tourists. There is even a summer shuttle bus which transports people from Williamsburg to the Rockaways. In February 2016, the Rockaway Peninsula was one of four neighborhoods featured in an article in
The New York Times about "New York's Next Hot Neighborhoods".
Disasters and events 19th and 20th centuries crash in 2001, from
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration photo in 2012 Storms and fires damaged many of the attractions on the Rockaway Peninsula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On August 24, 1893, an intense storm, later classified as
a hurricane, destroyed
Hog Island, a mile-long island off the Rockaway coast that supported bath houses, restaurants and other leisure-time venues. On June 15, 1922, much of Arverne was leveled by a fire that left about 10,000 people homeless, although the neighborhood was quick to rebuild. On June 6, 1993, a ship called the
Golden Venture beached near Fort Tilden on the western half of the Rockaway Peninsula. The ship contained 296 Chinese illegal immigrants, including 13 crew members. Ten people drowned trying to reach shore.
2001 disasters Over 70 Rockaway residents were killed in the
September 11 attacks on the
World Trade Center in 2001, including people who worked there and
New York City Fire Department firefighters and EMS personnel dispatched to the location. The city later opened Tribute Park on Jamaica Bay north of the Beach 116th Street shopping area in
Rockaway Park, dedicating it to their memory. In the center of the park is a piece of twisted steel from the ruins of the trade center's Twin Towers. Solemn ceremonies are held at the park every September 11, including a reading of the names of all the locals who perished on that day. Almost exactly two months after 9/11, on November 12, 2001,
American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Belle Harbor, killing 265 people: 260 aboard the aircraft and five on the ground. Many of the passengers on the plane were from the
Dominican community in
Washington Heights, Manhattan. A temporary memorial was developed at the actual site of the disaster, on Newport Avenue. But after consultation with the families in the Belle Harbor and Washington Heights communities, a public memorial was erected at the south end of Beach 116th Street, a major shopping district and transportation hub in the area. Ceremonies commemorating the disaster are held at the memorial every November 12, including a reading of the names of all of those killed in the crash. In 2001, a resident told
The Guardian: "It's impossible to understand unless you live here ... Father Michael Geraghty, a priest quoted in the same article, said that it was common for people to live in the houses that their parents lived in and that many families lived in the same houses for generations. The neighborhood suffered heavy losses from the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." The impact of the 9/11 attacks and Flight 587 on the community was the subject of the book
Braving the Waves: Rockaway Rises, and Rises Again by Kevin Boyle. The book contained many personal accounts of Rockaway residents and is interspersed with descriptions of other disasters in the Rockaways.
Hurricane Sandy In October 2012, Rockaway was devastated by
Hurricane Sandy. Many homes, especially in Breezy Point, were damaged or destroyed by high water, or by fires that raged beyond the capability of first responders to contain them. Residents lost everything in their basements, and hundreds of vehicles were ruined. One car caught fire when someone tried to start their vehicle, but residents put the fire out before official help arrived. On August 4, 2013, Senator
Charles Schumer announced that the first phase of reconstruction on the beach, completed, would lay the groundwork for a second contract awarded later during the summer of 2013, totally paid for by the federal government through the
Hurricane Sandy relief bill. During the storm, a fire spread between the closely spaced houses of Breezy Point, while firefighters' access to the area was greatly hampered by flooding. It destroyed 126 homes and damaged 22 more. Thousands of other houses were damaged by the flooding. Fires also wreaked havoc along several blocks of Beach 130th Street in Belle Harbor, and among storefronts along Rockaway Beach Blvd. near Beach 114th Street in Rockaway Park. Large portions of the
Rockaway Boardwalk were swept away by the floodwaters, leaving only its supporting piers. The FDNY found 130 homes burned to the ground. Nearby, another 50 homes were damaged by the fire. "Whalemina," a large, brightly colored statue of a smiling whale that had been a beloved iconic symbol of Rockaway since the 1990s, disappeared from Beach 94th Street near the Boardwalk and was presumed to have been swept out to sea. ==Communities==