Dead Horse Bay

Gerritsen Inlet and marina on left; Dead Horse Bay center; Rockaway Inlet, Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, and Rockaway, Queens on right
Bottle Beach, the western shore of the bay

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

From the nineteenth century to the twentieth century the area has been used in a variety of ways, including manufacturing fertilizer from the remains of dead animals, producing fish oil from the menhaden caught in the bay, and more recently a landfill for the disposal of New York City’s garbage.[1] Periodic clogging by carcasses from the adjacent glue factory with 200 foot chimney gave the bay its name.[2][3] A millstone used to grind horse bones can still be found along the Millstone trail.[4] In 1926, much of the salt marsh surrounding Dead Horse Bay and the rest of Barren Island were pumped with sand from Jamaica Bay.[4] This raised the land to 16 feet above the high tide mark and connected the islands to each other, and the mainland of Brooklyn, in order to create Floyd Bennett Field as New York City's first municipal airport.[3] The entire area, including the historic airfield, is now managed by the National Park Service as part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area.[5]

School groups are taken to Dead Horse Bay on a regular basis to walk the Millstone trail, seine for a variety of fishes, and learn about the natural and cultural history of the area.[6] Its shores are also a popular sport fishing spot, and home to a marina operating in Deep Creek as a National Park Service concession. Today one can find a large array of glass bottles and pieces of broken glass on the beach, along with old shoes and construction materials, many from the landfill which is now leaking. It is a popular place to collect strange decorative materials for artists and crafters.

References

  1. ↑ Schneider, Daniel B. (18 July 1999). "F.Y.I. Defunct Equine Estuary". The New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  2. ↑ Roberts, Sam (2010-04-25). "New York Harbor Muck Used to Restore Jamaica Bay". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  3. 1 2 Porcelli, Richard V. (2015-08-31). Floyd Bennett Field. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467133678.
  4. 1 2 Authors, Kathleen Cuzzolino and Dennis Skidds/Web Page (2003-10-19). "Gateway National Recreation Area, Jamaica Bay Institute". www.nature.nps.gov. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  5. ↑ Letzter, Rafi (25 August 2016). "The National Park Service just turned 100. We visited one of its filthiest, most forgotten sites". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  6. ↑ New York City Department of Environmental Protection and Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan Education Coordinating Committee (2010). "Jamaica Bay Education Resource Directory" (PDF).

Coordinates: 40°35′0.6″N 73°54′14.7″W / 40.583500°N 73.904083°W / 40.583500; -73.904083

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