Barren Island, Brooklyn

Floyd Bennett Field is an airfield in the Marine Park neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn in New York City, along the shore of Jamaica Bay. The airport originally hosted commercial and general aviation traffic before being used as a naval air station. Bennett Field is currently part of the Gateway National Recreation Area's Jamaica Bay Unit, and is managed by the National Park Service (NPS). While no longer used as an operational commercial, military, or general aviation airfield, a section is still used as a helicopter base by the New York City Police Department (NYPD), and one runway is reserved for hobbyists flying radio-controlled aircraft. Floyd Bennett Field was created by connecting Barren Island and several smaller islands to the rest of Brooklyn by filling the channels between them with sand pumped from the bottom of Jamaica Bay. The airport was named after Floyd Bennett, a noted aviator who piloted the first plane to fly over the North Pole and had visualized an airport at Barren Island before dying in 1928; construction on Bennett Field started the same year. The airport was dedicated on June 26, 1930, and officially opened to commercial flights on May 23, 1931. Despite the exceptional quality of its facilities, Bennett Field never received much commercial traffic, and it was used instead for general aviation. During the interwar period, dozens of aviation records were set by aviators flying to or from Bennett Field.Starting in the 1930s, the United States Coast Guard and United States Navy occupied part of the airport. With the outbreak of World War II, Bennett Field became part of Naval Air Station New York on June 2, 1941. Floyd Bennett Field was a hub for naval activities during World War II. After the war, the airport was used as a Naval Air Reserve station. In 1970, the Navy stopped using Bennett Field, though a reserve center remained until 1983, and the Coast Guard remained through 1998. Several plans for the use of Bennett Field were proposed, and in 1972, it was ultimately decided to integrate the airport into the Gateway National Recreation Area. Floyd Bennett Field reopened as a park in 1974.Many of the earliest surviving original structures are included in a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, being among the largest collections and best representatives of commercial aviation architecture from the period, and due to the significant contributions to general aviation and military aviation made there during the Interwar period. Bennett Field also contains facilities such as a natural area, a campground, and grasslands.

Aviator Sports and Events Center is a sports and events center in Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York City. Operating as a concessionaire of National Park Service, Aviator has refurbished four historic aircraft hangars and surrounding grounds in partnership with the NPS. The area includes 175,000 square feet of indoor sports and event space along with adjoining outdoor turf fields and free parking for 2,000 cars. Aviator provides a variety of sports and leagues play including basketball, football, gymnastics, ice hockey, ice skating, lacrosse, soccer and volleyball. Activities such as parties, field trips, camps, and birthday celebrations are held at the facility. The NPS and Aviator formed a partnership in 2003, and the facility opened in 2006. By combining several of Floyd Bennett Field's hangars they created one of the largest sports complexes in the country.

The Historic Aircraft Restoration Project is an aviation museum located in Hangar B at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, New York.

The Mill Basin Bridge is a seven-lane, fixed girder bridge in Brooklyn. It is owned and maintained by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) and spans Mill Basin inlet. Completed in February 2019, the span replaces a Bascule bridge originally constructed in 1940. The bridge carries passenger vehicles via the Belt Parkway and pedestrians and cyclists via the Jamaica Bay Greenway.

Dead Horse Bay is a small body of water off Barren Island, between the Gerritsen Inlet and Rockaway Inlet in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Gerritsen Creek is a short watercourse in Brooklyn, New York City, that empties into Jamaica Bay. The creek has been described as one of the "fingers" that formed the original shoreline of Jamaica Bay. The creek lies just beyond the maximum extent of the Wisconsin Glacier.

The Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge (originally and often referred to as the Marine Parkway Bridge) is a vertical-lift bridge in New York City, New York, that crosses Rockaway Inlet. The bridge, which opened on July 3, 1937, connects the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, with Flatbush Avenue to Floyd Bennett Field, Belt Parkway, and the Marine Park neighborhood in Brooklyn. The bridge is designated as New York State Route 901B, an unsigned reference route.The center span is 540 feet (160 m) long and is normally 55 feet (17 m) above the water but can be lifted to a height of 150 feet (46 m) above water level. With its distinctive twin towers (which house the vertical-lift machinery), the bridge has become an iconic landmark and symbol of the Rockaways.The bridge is owned by the City of New York and operated by the MTA Bridges and Tunnels, an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The operation of this bridge includes the maintenance of the Marine Parkway from the toll plaza to Jacob Riis Park. Though a city-owned and operated bridge, it connects Floyd Bennett Field and Jacob Riis Park, which are both part of the National Park System's Gateway National Recreation Area.

Mill Basin is a residential neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, New York City. It is on a peninsula abutting Jamaica Bay and is bordered by Avenue U on the northwest and the Mill Basin/Mill Island Inlet on its remaining sides. Mill Basin is adjacent to the neighborhood of Bergen Beach to the northeast, Flatlands to the northwest, Marine Park to the southwest, and Floyd Bennett Field and the former Barren Island to the southeast. Mill Basin also contains a subsection called Old Mill Basin, north of Avenue U. Mill Basin was originally Mill Island, Jamaica Bay. In the 17th century, a mill was built on Mill, Bergen, and Barren Islands. The archipelago was then occupied by the Schenck and Crooke families through the late 19th century, and remained a mostly rural area with oyster fishing. After Robert Crooke developed a smelting plant on Mill Island in 1890, industrial customers started developing the island and connected it to the rest of Brooklyn. In an effort to develop Mill Basin as a seaport district, ports and dry docks were built in the early 20th century, though a lack of railroad connections hindered the area's further growth. Residential development began in the 1950s, along with the rest of southeast Brooklyn, though some of the former industrial buildings remain. Mill Basin has some of the most luxurious houses in New York City, though it also contains commercial and industrial tenants, as well as the Kings Plaza shopping mall in its western part. The area around Mill Basin consists of a mostly white population as of the 2010 United States Census, and is sparsely served by public transportation. Nearby recreational areas include Floyd Bennett Field, the first municipal airport in New York City, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area and is just southeast of Mill Basin. Mill Basin is part of Brooklyn Community District 18, and its primary ZIP Code is 11234. It is patrolled by the 63rd Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

Mau Mau Island, also called White Island, is a small uninhabited island in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, located between Gerritsen Creek and Mill Creek in the Marine Park recreation area. Historically, the area around Mau Mau Island was a salt marsh with shifting topography. The island came into existence permanently after 1917, and most likely formed in 1934 as dumping led to the current shoreline.The area was uninhabited by European settlers until the late 1700s, when a mill and bridge were built. It was donated to the City of New York in the early 1930s, along with much of Marine Park, by Alfred Tredway White and Frederic Pratt with the requirement that it become parkland.In the 1930s, sand excavated during construction of the Belt Parkway was added to the island. Subsequently, patches of asphalt were laid on top to prevent the sand from blowing onto the nearby Marine Park Golf Course.In 2011, the New York City Parks Department began a restoration project on the island, with the goal of restoring salt marsh and bird habitat.

Roxbury is a community on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens originally settled by Irish immigrants in the early 20th century. The neighborhood is just west of the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and adjoins Fort Tilden. It is an inholding within the borders of the Breezy Point Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, of the National Park System. The area was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.Roxbury is part of the Breezy Point Cooperative, a private property owning corporation of residents. Of the roughly 2,000 homes in the cooperative, Roxbury makes up around 400 of them. Specific parking stickers are required to park in the community. Roxbury, like other parts of the Rockaway Peninsula, has a significantly larger proportion of white residents compared to other parts of Queens.

Marine Park is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood lies between Flatlands and Mill Basin to the east, and Gerritsen Beach, Midwood, and Sheepshead Bay to the south and west. It is mostly squared off in area by Gerritsen Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, Avenue U and Kings Highway. The neighborhood's eponymous park is the largest public park in Brooklyn. Charles Downing Lay won a silver medal in town planning at the 1936 Olympics for the planning of Marine Park.Marine Park is largely inhabited by ethnic groups such as Italians, Irish, Greeks, and Jews. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 18.

Fort Tilden, also known as Fort Tilden Historic District, is a former United States Army installation on the coast in the New York City borough of Queens. Fort Tilden now forms part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is administered by the National Park Service. Fort Tilden Historic District is located on the Rockaway Peninsula, between Jacob Riis Park to the east and Breezy Point Tip to the west. All three of these sites are operated by the National Park Service.Since its decommissioning, the former installation has largely become a natural area of beaches, dunes and maritime forest. Most of the old military installations are abandoned, and military structures which formerly housed artillery (batteries) and ammunition (magazines) are covered in graffiti. A few buildings have been renovated and are used by local arts groups, and some large open areas are used as sports grounds. Atop one of the old batteries, Battery Harris East, a viewing platform has 360-degree views that include the city, New York Harbor, and the Atlantic Ocean. The wilder parts of Fort Tilden are popular with bird-watchers and other nature-lovers, and the beach areas are frequently used for fishing.