So Close

An A train platform in the Rockaways:

Hey, what’s that off in the middle distance?

That’s the Atlantic Ocean. Not a bay, but rather the ocean at the New York Bight. From the southern tip of Manhattan to the Narrows (where Brooklyn and Staten Island are closest) is the Upper Bay, New York harbor. From the Narrows south to the gap between Breezy Point (the western tip of the Rockaway peninsula) and Sandy Hook (Rockaway’s counterpart on the New Jersey shore) is the Lower Bay. Past that, you’ve run out of protection from land. So you can be in New York City, standing on a subway platform, and facing the open ocean.