New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary

Lower New York Bay is a section of New York Bay south of the Narrows (the strait between Staten Island and Brooklyn). The eastern end of the Bay is marked by two spits of land, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and Rockaway, Queens. The waterway between the spits connects the Bay to the Atlantic Ocean at the New York Bight. Traversing the floor of the Bay southeasterly from the Narrows to the Bight and beyond is Hudson Canyon. Roughly the northeastern portion of the Bay from the Narrows to Sandy Hook is known as the Lower Bay (named in relation to the neighboring Upper [New York] Bay); roughly the western portion of the Bay (including the portion at the mouth of New Jersey's Raritan River) is called Raritan Bay; and roughly the southeastern portion of the Bay (that is, the portion south and the portion southwest from Sandy Hook) is known as Sandy Hook Bay.

West Bank Light, officially West Bank Front Range Light, is a lighthouse in Lower New York Bay, within New York City, and acts as the front range light for the Ambrose Channel. It is currently active and not open to the public. The tower was built in 1901 and heightened in 1908. Staten Island Light serves as the rearrange. On May 29, 2007, the Secretary of the Interior identified West Bank Light, offshore in Ambrose Channel–Lower New York Bay, as surplus under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. The property was described as 55 feet (17 m) tall with two floors, a keeper's dwelling, and located on 0.1 acres (0.040 ha) of underwater area. The keeper's dwelling, located on the second story (about five standard stories above the ground), was 1,500 square feet (140 m2). It could be seen as far as the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, as well as from South Beach, Staten Island.No group was identified as willing and able to preserve the West Bank Light, and on June 5, 2008, the General Services Administration placed the light up for sale via auction with an initial bid was $10,000. The auction ended on August 27, 2008 at a final bid of $245,000. The sale did not close, and the light was auctioned a second time in September 2010, selling for $195,000 to Sheridan Reilly.

Romer Shoal Light is a sparkplug lighthouse in Lower New York Bay, on the north edge of the Swash Channel, about 3⁄4 nautical mile (1.4 km; 0.86 mi) south of Ambrose Channel and 2+1⁄2 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) north of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, in the entrance to New York Harbor. It is in New Jersey, very close to the border with New York. Named as Romer Shoal Light Station, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 24, 2007, for its significance in architecture, engineering, transportation, and maritime history.

Swinburne Island is a 4-acre (1.6 ha) artificial island in Lower New York Bay, east of Staten Island in New York City. It was used for quarantine of immigrants. Swinburne Island is the smaller of two nearby islands, the other being Hoffman Island to the north.

Old Orchard Shoal Light was a sparkplug lighthouse in lower New York Bay marking a large shoal area. It was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012.

Ambrose Channel is the only shipping channel in and out of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The channel is considered to be part of Lower New York Bay and is located several miles off the coasts of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and Breezy Point, New York. Ambrose Channel terminates at Ambrose Anchorage, just south of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the gateway to New York Harbor, where it becomes known as the Anchorage Channel. It is named for John Wolfe Ambrose, an engineer from New York. The entrance to the channel was marked by Ambrose Light which doubled as a staging area for pilot boats, most notably the Sandy Hook Pilots. Prior to the construction of the light tower in 1967 the channel was marked by the Ambrose Lightship, one of a class of lightships operated and maintained by the United States Coast Guard for the express purpose of marking main shipping channels for major ports. After being struck by small boats on a number of occasions, the light tower was redesigned and relocated in 1999, and finally decommissioned and removed in 2008. Once inside the Narrows, Ambrose becomes the Anchorage Channel which splits into channels to marine terminals. Connecting channels are the Bay Ridge, the Red Hook, the Buttermilk, the Claremont, the Port Jersey, the Kill Van Kull, the Newark Bay, the Port Newark, the Elizabeth, and the Arthur Kill. Anchorages are known as Stapleton, Bay Ridge and Gravesend.

Hoffman Island is an 11-acre (4.5 ha) artificial island in the Lower New York Bay, off the South Beach of Staten Island, New York City. A smaller, 4-acre (1.6 ha) artificial island, Swinburne Island, lies immediately to the south. Created in 1873 upon the Orchard Shoal by the addition of landfill, the island is named for former New York City mayor (1866–1868) and New York Governor (1869–1871) John Thompson Hoffman. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hoffman (and Swinburne) Island was used as a quarantine station, housing immigrants who, upon their arrival at the immigrant inspection station at nearby Ellis Island, presented with symptoms of contagious disease(s).

The Midland Beach Railway Company was the operator of a miniature railway at Midland Beach in Staten Island, New York City around 1903. The railroad operated along a pier jutting out from what is now the South Beach Boardwalk.

Elm Tree Beacon Light served as the front range with New Dorp Light as the rear to mark Swash Channel. The channel is now marked by Staten Island Light and West Bank Light.

Miller Field was a United States Army facility in the neighborhood of New Dorp, Staten Island, New York. It was founded in November 1919 and completed in 1921.

The East Shore Seawall, also known as Staten Island Multi-Use Elevated Promenade, is a 5.2-mile (8.4 km) long combined seawall and esplanade proposed for the eastern shoreline of Staten Island, New York. It would run along the Lower New York Bay linking sections of the Gateway National Recreation Area: Fort Wadsworth at the north, Miller Field, and Great Kills Park to the south. It will roughly parallel Father Capodanno Boulevard and the South Beach–Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk. The coastal engineering strategy is to address climate change and sea level rise, and improve resilience along the shoreline of the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary and Port of New York and New Jersey. It will be built up to 6 metres (20 ft) above sea level and protect communities from coastal flooding of up to 15.6 feet (4.8 m) (two feet higher than that caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012). It will includes 4.5 miles (7.2 km) of buried seawall, 0.6 miles (0.97 km) of earthen levee tie-in, 0.35 miles (0.56 km) miles vertical flood wall, more than 300 acres (120 ha) of natural storage, approximately 180 acres (73 ha) of ponding areas and 40 acres (16 ha) acres of tidal wetlands. It will also function as a linear park/greenway with recreational amenities including a boardwalk, biking and walking paths, and will provide access to public beaches.The project, a collaboration between the US Army Corps of Engineers and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, was first announced in May 2017. In 2019, the city allocated $615 million for its design and construction.Conflicts over environmental remediation has stalled the building of the project, originally projected to be completed in 2024.Federal legislation to expedite the construction of the seawall was passed in June 2022. It is expected to cost $1.5 billion. Construction was slated to begin at the end of that year.

The South Beach–Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk, alternately referred to as the FDR Boardwalk or the South Beach Boardwalk, is a boardwalk facing the Lower New York Bay on the East Shore of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City. The boardwalk is the main feature of a public park that stretches from Fort Wadsworth and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Miller Field, both part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The park also contains numerous recreational facilities, including a skate park. Originally, the Staten Island shorefront was occupied by multiple amusement parks, which had closed by the 1930s. Construction on the boardwalk started in 1935 and was complete by 1937. Amusements continued to occupy the boardwalk until the late 1950s, when water pollution and other changes started to repel potential visitors. The boardwalk was restored under a multi-million dollar project in the late 1990s. However, it is still relatively lightly used: in 2017, South Beach and Boardwalk saw 334,000 visitors, about 5% of the visitor count at Coney Island.