National Park Guide: New Jersey's Gateway Recreation Area

— -- Carlos Umberto of Paterson visits "to see God in nature." Israel Ocasio came with a friend for the history. Members of the Rutgers Photography Club met here the same day.

The Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area is many things to many people. And perhaps that's why Gateway has become the state's most popular national park.

The area's 26,000 acres extend across New Jersey, New York and three boroughs of New York City: Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens. Branded as an "urban national park," it has units in Sandy Hook, N.J., Jamaica Bay, N.Y., and Staten Island, N.Y.

In New Jersey's Sandy Hook, there are 7 miles of beaches, salt marshes, hiking trails and spectacular views of New York Harbor, Raritan Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. "When the sun hits the horizon, when that sun is setting on the water, you'll see the most beautiful oranges and reds," says Umberto, 62.

For history buffs, there are sites including the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in the USA, completed in 1764. Twelve years after its construction, colonists attacked it themselves so it would not guide British navigators here. The British eventually landed and rebuilt.

The park "is larger than life — you can just feel the history," says Ocasio, 46, of Patchogue, Long Island. "It's surreal."

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About the park

Size: 26,000 acres

Visitors: 7,697,727 in 2011

Established: 1972

History: Sandy Hook, N.J., had been the site for fortifications since the American Revolution, and in 1859, work began on Fort Hancock. Until 1919, the fort was used as an artillery range; it was the Army's first proving ground. Sandy Hook State Park opened in 1962. The park's name became Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook in 1972.

When visiting: Visitor centers: Sandy Hook Unit, 1 Bay Ave., Highlands, N.J.; Jamaica Bay, 1 Cross Bay Blvd., Queens, N.Y.; Staten Island, 210 New York Ave., Staten Island, N.Y. Information: Sandy Hook, N.J., 732-872-5970; Jamaica Bay, N.Y., 718-318-4340; Staten Island, N.Y., 718-354-4606.

Of note: All of Gateway's units include sites that defended New York Harbor from attacks from the sea from the Revolutionary War through World War II.