Administered by the National Park Service, it covers an area of approximately 580 acres (2.3 km2) of salt marsh, beach and woodlands, stretching along two miles (3 km) of Staten Island's south shore.

[4] In 1860, the businessman and pioneering naturalist John J. Crooke bought a part of the land and lived in a wooden house at the beach.

[4] As early as 1925, the New York City government was considering buying 50 acres (20 ha) of Crooke's land to build a playground.

[10] A pioneering rocket launch in 1933 led the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics to commemorate the location as a "Historic Aerospace Site".

[13] It became part of the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1973, along with Miller Field and Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn and Queens, and Sandy Hook in New Jersey.