by Stephen Williams/photos as noted
With the arrival of a series of early summer heat waves that started in June 2024, throngs of New York City apartment dwellers boarded subway trains and ferries to recreate that timeless seasonal march to the city’s beaches to obtain cooling relief from the oppressive heat. Ever since the subway lines reached the city’s beaches, the most popular destination has been Brooklyn’s Coney Island, which sees an endless stream of people every day, especially once schools have closed. Other riders head to Orchard Park Beach on the northern tip of the Bronx aboard the IRT’s Number 6 Pelham Bay Line. But a loyal group of beachgoers are drawn to Queens’ Rockaway Beach, situated on a peninsula surrounded by Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Rockaway Beach has been an historic seashore destination for over 100 years. Prior to the arrival of the railroads and subways, trolleys were the way to get around New York City, and they brought beachgoers by the thousands. Rockaway Beach stretches east-west from Beach 2nd to Beach 149th Street. It is a very laid-back community, and it is not as crowded as Coney Island. Just as Surf Avenue is the main strip of Coney Island, Beach 116th Street is the central commercial corridor for Rockaway Park. This busy thoroughfare is home to quaint shops, a variety of great ethnic restaurants and local stores. The aromas of garlic and herbs fill the air on every block, and it is hard to resist even a couple slices of pizza. Even though the traditional beachfront hotels and summer bungalows have vanished, there are many AirB&Bs to accommodate sun worshippers who wish to stay overnight.
For decades, the main attraction had been Rockaway’s Playland Amusement Park, which opened in 1902. Situated between Beach 97th and 98th streets, the park featured numerous rides, highlighted by its giant roller coaster. Playland will always be associated with its symbolic happy clown face mascot. More than 175 million enthusiastic visitors walked through the gates of Playland over the decades; 1950 was a great year for the amusement park, which saw a record 48 million people in attendance as wartime rationing had ceased and the public was ready to enjoy the good times once again. New rides and attractions were added to entertain the public.
ABOVE: The New York City Transit Authority and the New York Transit Museum jointly sponsored the annual “To the Rockaways by Rail” excursion on Sunday, August 11, 2024. The excursion consisted of R-9 subway cars from 96th Street-2nd Avenue Station in Manhattan, to Rockaway Park in the New York City borough of Queens.The southbound run is seen entering Beach 116 Street station in Rockaway Park, the last stop on the daily Rockaway Park Shuttle. Monday through Friday morning and evening rush hours see direct “A” train service to Manhattan. —John Levai
Rockaway Beach is also known for being a haven for recreational sports, such as swimming, surfing, basketball, and bicycling. Parades and marching bands fill the main streets on holidays. Rockaway Beach was one of the earliest walker-friendly communities, and it became the most popular public beach in America, even out-shining its Brooklyn neighbor, Coney Island.
But as the decades passed, attendance began to wane as the public’s interests changed. The 1960s and 1970s were periods of transition, as the space and electronics eras were emerging. A slight increase in attendance came with the 1964-65 World’s Fair, but that was not enough. The Playland park owners even held beauty pageants to stimulate interest, but to no avail. The final blow was a series of dramatic insurance rate increases which the park owners could not support. Playland, which had entertained millions of loyal visitors over the decades, eventually closed in 1987. Today the former Playland Amusement Park site between Beach 97 and 98th Streets is filled with triple-decker homes. Change came to the surrounding neighborhood too, as the old hotels and rows of summer bungalows were bulldozed and replaced with apartment buildings.
Despite losing its famed amusement park, Rockaway Beach still draws large crowds each day during the summer months, as the lure of salt air and the wind in your face is irresistible to city dwellers. The beach is now undergoing a revival, as the Army Corps of Engineers works to replenish the sand dunes eroded by recent heavy storms, and wide, concrete pedestrian thoroughfares have replaced the older wooden boardwalk.
Getting There
The trip to Rockaway Beach has always been part of the fun for beachgoers over the decades. Historically, there have been several ways to travel to the Rockaways, including ferries, trolleys, subways and the Long Island Rail Road, and the same holds true today, except for the trolleys. At one time steamships brought patrons from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and distant Yonkers, and even Newark, New Jersey. Today NYC Ferry offers riders a $4.50 one-way fare aboard a modern ferry between Wall Street, the Brooklyn Army Terminal and Beach 108 Street, Rockaway Beach. In response to increased demand, a new ferry route called “the Rockaway Rocket” has been added on weekends only, through Labor Day. Its $10 reserved ticket brings additional city dwellers from Long Island City and Greenpoint, former industrial neighborhoods that have undergone new transformation and population growth.
ABOVE: More Jamaica Bay action as a Broad Channel-bound “A” train of R211 cars passes a fishing boat heading in to dock after an early morn-ing of fishing on this clear August 21, 2024 day. Bridge girders behind the train drop down to provide a “duck under” at Hammel’s Wye for peninsula-bound trains. —Stephen Williams
At $2.90, New York City Subway’s “A” Train route from 207th Street in upper Manhattan via Brooklyn offers comparable travel time as the ferry. Both modes of travel are heavily patronized on summer weekends, with long lines being very common. The Long Island Rail Road no longer provides doorstep service to Rockaway Park, as its line has been cut back to Nameoke Street in Far Rockaway on the east end of the peninsula, requiring a transfer and ride on the “A” Train to complete the trip. Local bus service from the Queens mainland is provided by the Q53 Select bus service.
Today the IND “A” Train is the subway conveyance for your journey to the Rockaways. At 33 miles in length, the “A” Train is currently the longest subway route in the system. Its route extends from the dense apartment-lined streets of Inwood/207th Street in upper Manhattan and ends at the salt air terminal at Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway. A shuttle train connection at the Broad Channel station is available for service to Rockaway Park during off-peak periods. For the morning and afternoon rush hour commutes, the “A” train provides five full-length trains between Inwood and Rockaway Park, avoiding the change to the shuttle, in order to accommodate larger passenger loads. These direct trains are essential to handle the heavy summertime beach loads too…
