Jones Beach

Address: P.O. Box 1000, Wantagh, NY

Phone Number: 516-785-1600

Web Site: http://www.nysparks.state.ny.us

Titanic in scale, lofty in its motives, Jones Beach still has the power to move people the way it did almost 80 years ago when it opened as the world’s largest public oceanfront park. Back then, Jones Beach attracted everyone from singer Al Jolson and writer H.G. Welles to representatives of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. All were amazed at what had been accomplished by New York public works czar Robert Moses and many, many government dollars.

“The beach is apparently endless,” gasped one early observer. And so it still is -- 6 1/2 miles long, 300 yards wide at some points, it is still massive. Massively impressive, too, particularly its grand art deco bathhouses and signature 200-foot-high water tower (which resembles a Renaissance cathedral spire).

Jones Beach also had its critics: “An exercise in recreational socialism,” one grumbled. No one thinks about the politics anymore; but the recreation and exercise? Well, you can still get plenty of it at what was once called (and many Long Islanders still believe is) The King of All Beaches.