New York Bay

Inlet of the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Hudson River, in the US states of New York and New Jersey. It is the site of the country's largest port complex. Famous sights in the Bay are the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, Ellis Island (the former main centre for immigration into the USA), and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

New York Bay is divided into two sections, Upper and Lower, separated by a strait known as the Narrows. The Ambrose Channel leads shipping through the Bay and Narrows. Giovanni da Verrazano was the first European to explore the area, in 1524, and Henry Hudson claimed it for the Dutch in 1609.

Upper New York Bay, which is roughly 10 km/6 mi in diameter, is surrounded by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan (northeast), Brooklyn (east), and Staten Island (southwest), as well as New Jersey's Bayonne (west) and Jersey City (northwest); the Hudson River enters it from the north. The Kill van Kull leads west from it into Newark Bay, and the East River leads northeast to Queens, the Bronx, and Long Island Sound. The facilities of New York Harbour lie almost entirely on the Upper Bay. The Narrows, 5 km/3 mi long and 1.6 km/1 mi wide, lie between Staten Island (west) and Brooklyn (east), and form a passage into the Upper Bay. Lower New York Bay is bounded by Staten Island (northwest and west), Brooklyn and its Gravesend Bay (northeast and east), Rockaway Point and Channel in Queens, New Jersey's Raritan Bay (southwest), and the open Atlantic (south).