National Parks of New York Harbor

National Parks of New York Harbor is an office of the National Park Service that coordinates administration of eleven NPS sites, including 23 unique destinations located in the New York metropolitan area.

[1] Properties overseen by the office make up 27,000 acres (110 km2) and attract more than 12 million visitors each year.

The National Parks of New York Harbor umbrella was created in September 2003 as a means of drawing more visitors to the National Park Service properties in the New York City region.

[2] Maria Burks, the first Commissioner, was charged with increasing awareness of park units other than the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and saw the solution to this problem as increasing the number of ferries that connect and serve the properties.

[3] As a result, when the ferry contract for the Statue of Liberty was up for bid, a discussion occurred about asking interested parties to include increased harbor service as part of their packages, but this request did not receive much focus in the end.