New York Harbor
New York Harbor is a geographic term that refers collectively to the bays and tidal estuaries near the mouth of the
Hudson and adjacent rivers in the vicinity of
New York City. In a narrower sense, the term is sometimes taken to refer specifically to
Upper New York Bay.
In the broad sense, the term may be loosely taken to include the following bodies of water:
*
Upper New York Bay*
Lower New York Bay*
Newark Bay*
The Narrows*
North River (i.e., the lower
Hudson River)
*
East River*
Arthur Kill*
Kill Van Kull*
Jamaica Bay*
Raritan Bay*
Harlem RiverIn socioeconomic terms, the phrase has historically implied the commercial activity of the port of
New York City, including the waterfronts of the
five boroughs and nearby cities in
New Jersey on the Hudson River.
Throughout most of its history, the harbor has been the most important port in the
United States and furnished one of the principal means by which passengers and goods were transported to and from New York City and the rest of the country, particularly after the opening of the
Erie Canal in
1825.
Since the
1950s, New York City proper as a commercial port has been almost completely eclipsed by the
container ship facility at nearby
Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in
Newark Bay, which is the largest such port on the
Eastern Seaboard. New York City is still serviced by several
cruise lines, commuter
ferries, and tourist excursion boats.
A persistent misconception holds that the harbor is largely devoid of marine life. In reality, it supports a great variety of thriving aquatic species.
If one is travelling down the Hudson in some sort of
watercraft, the last tunnel he will cross over is the
Port Authority Trans-Hudson. He will probably next cross under the
Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
New York harbor has been deepened over the years to accommodate larger ships. The natural depth of the harbor is about 17 feet. It is now about 45 feet. In many areas the sandy bottom has been excavated down to rock and now requires blasting. Dredging equipment then picks up the rock and disposes of it. At one point in 2005 there were 70 pieces of dredging equipment in the harbor working to deepen the harbor, the largest fleet of dredging equipment anywhere in the world. The work occasionally causes noise and vibration that can be felt by residents on
Staten Island. Excavators alert residents when blasting is underway.
*
Marine life of New York Harbor*
Geography of New York Harbor*
Staten Island Ferry*
NY Waterway*
Hudson Canyon*
Raritan Bay*
Arthur Kill*
Ellis Island*
Liberty Island
