How a master builder turned mosquito-infested swamps into a world-famous oceanfront playground

History · Published 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the 1920s, Jones Beach was a swampy, flood-prone barrier island sitting just two feet above sea level. Through a massive engineering feat, Robert Moses transformed it into a premier public park, dredging millions of cubic yards of sand to raise the land and create a permanent coastal destination.

The creation of Jones Beach State Park was the first major public project led by Robert Moses. Before his intervention, the area was a series of small, marshy islands frequently submerged by storms. To stabilize the terrain, Moses utilized massive dredgers to pull sand from the bay bottom, raising the elevation of the barrier islands by fourteen feet. This ambitious land-reclamation project connected the islands into a single, cohesive stretch of land, eventually topped by the Ocean Parkway.

Beyond the physical construction, Moses faced the challenge of shifting, wind-blown sand that threatened to make the beach unusable. His solution was ecological: he sent landscape architects to study stable beaches elsewhere on Long Island, discovering that beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) could hold dunes in place by growing roots sideways to find water. In the summer of 1928, thousands of laborers planted this grass by hand, successfully securing the dunes and creating a barrier against the wind.

The park officially opened to the public on August 4, 1929, alongside a causeway that provided the first automobile access from the mainland. Moses envisioned a democratic space, intentionally excluding private clubs and housing developments. He commissioned Art Deco architecture for the facilities, including two prominent bathhouses and a 188-foot water tower modeled after the bell tower of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Today, the park spans over 2,400 acres and attracts millions of visitors annually, serving as a testament to early 20th-century public works.

While the park remains a beloved landmark, its history is not without controversy. Critics, including biographer Robert Caro, have alleged that Moses designed the bridges over the Southern State Parkway with intentionally low clearances to restrict access for buses, thereby limiting the ability of lower-income and minority populations to reach the beach. Despite such debates, the park remains a central feature of the New York metropolitan area, hosting everything from the Bethpage Air Show to concerts at the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater.

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