Upper/Lower New York Bay Complex

Upper New York Bay
The best known part of the Estuary (You can view it from Manhattan's Battery Park), the Upper Bay is fed by the Hudson and East rivers, and is the busiest harbor complex in the world. It is enfolded by New Jersey's Hudson County, Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Manhattan and drains into the Lower New York Bay. Baykeeper is active here working for waterfront access and open space conservation in Liberty State Park, Hudson County, NJ, and the Hudson River Park. With our partners we are also advocating solutions to New York's CSO problem.

• Lower Hudson River
  A tidal fjord (a glacially carved and drowned river), the Lower Hudson flows into Upper Hudson Bay. It is part of the General Electric PCB Superfund site. The Hudson Riverkeeper is active on the river, and Baykeeper works with this partner on land use, port development, industrial and municipal CSO pollution, access and other issues, especially on the New Jersey side of the river. Baykeeper with its partners was instrumental in establishing the Hudson River Walkway in NJ, that will one day run for 18 miles from George Washington Bridge to Bayonne.

• East River
  Separates Manhattan from Queens and Brooklyn, flows into Upper New York Bay. Baykeeper is active with groups on Newtown Creek, an East River tributary, working on sewage treatment and groundwater contamination issues.

• Gowanus Canal (Creek)
  Flows into Upper New York Bay.

Lower New York Bay
The widening bay that begins just south of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that links Staten Island and Brooklyn. Here Baykeeper joined with other local groups in aggressively addressing ecological concerns when the Army Corps sought to fill ecologically rich borrow pits with dredge spoils.

• Gravesend Bay
  Part of Lower New York Bay. It is a small cup-shaped embayment on the Brooklyn side of the Estuary. Coney Island Creek enters it from the east. Grassroots groups have started here as the Coney Island Creek Coalition.