The name "Rockaway" may have meant "place of sands" in the Munsee language of the Native American Lenape who occupied this area at the time of European contact in the early 17th century.

[note 2][11] In 1685, the band chief, Tackapoucha, and the English governor of the province agreed to sell the Rockaways to a Captain Palmer for 31 pounds sterling.

The wealthy no longer had a monopoly on the peninsula, and various amusement parks, stores, and resort hotels attracted people from all over the city to spend a day or a whole summer there.

That same year, the group received corporation status from the State of New York and by 1908 began participating in its first interclub ocean races with some of the city's other yacht clubs.

[27] The central-peninsula neighborhood of Hammels, along with the eastern communities of Arverne and Far Rockaway, tried to secede from the city several times, complaining that consolidation had brought high taxes and poor services.

[32] It was a popular place for New York families until 1985, when insurance costs and competition from major regional parks made it impossible to continue operations.

On May 8, 1919, four United States Navy Curtis-model seaplanes took off from what is now Beach Channel Drive to Newfoundland, Canada, the Azores Islands, and Lisbon, Portugal.

[33] In the 1930s, Robert Moses came to power as New York City's Parks Commissioner and his extensive road and transportation projects were both a benefit and a disaster for the neighborhood.

The Marine Parkway Bridge was built farther west on the peninsula between Jacob Riis Park and Breezy Point linking the isolated communities to Brooklyn.

[34][35] The construction of the two bridges started to transform the neighborhood and the rest of the peninsula into a more year-round residential area or commuter town, as people had a more convenient way to travel to and from work.

[38] Robert Moses' construction of other recreational areas and facilities, such as the New York Aquarium and Jones Beach State Park, indirectly affected the neighborhood as well.

[39] After World War II, several large public housing projects were built in the region as part of Moses' overall citywide neighborhood redevelopment plans, but these eventually became hotbeds of crime and related social pathologies.

For example, the city constructed the Hammel Houses in Rockaway Beach, one of the many urban renewal efforts that dominated the community and much of its eastern neighbors in the last half of the 20th century.

[39] With the advent of inexpensive travel, air-conditioning, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the Interstate Highway system, Rockaway lost its luster as a recreation area, and development transformed much of it into residential communities.

[47] In 1998, Broad Channel's Labor Day parade included a float that parodied the racially motivated dragging death of an African American man, James Byrd Jr.

[57] Elsewhere, along the beach, zoning laws written decades ago for the hotel trade have allowed developers to build high-rises alongside the smaller old and new houses.

[60] On August 14, 2008, however, a rezoning plan that limits the size of some buildings was approved by the New York City Council for five communities on the peninsula covering 280 blocks.

The area appears in New York Magazine's 2007 spring travel issue as a place for "male bonding" and to "scuba dive for sunken ships" via Sheepshead Bay's Jeanne II docks at Pier Five.

The 5.5 miles (8.9 km) long Rockaway Boardwalk and 170 acres (0.69 km2) of sandy beaches, fully accessible by the subway, make this a popular summer day trip for New York City residents.

Toward the western end of the boardwalk, several portions of the beach are fenced off to preserve the nesting habitat for several species of terns and plovers, making for a unique urban birdwatching locale.

Various media began reporting on artists such as Andrew VanWyngarden, co-founder of popular psychedelic rock band MGMT, purchasing homes on the beach.

[69] Over 70 Rockaway residents were killed in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, including people who worked there and New York City Fire Department firefighters and EMS personnel dispatched to the location.

But after consultation with the families in the Belle Harbor and Washington Heights communities, a public memorial was erected at the south end of Beach 116th Street, a major shopping district and transportation hub in the area.

[75] On August 4, 2013, Senator Charles Schumer announced that the first phase of reconstruction on the beach, completed, would lay the groundwork for a second contract awarded later during the summer of 2013, totally paid for by the federal government through the Hurricane Sandy relief bill.

[76] During the storm, a fire spread between the closely spaced houses of Breezy Point, while firefighters' access to the area was greatly hampered by flooding.

[84] "Whalemina," a large, brightly colored statue of a smiling whale that had been a beloved iconic symbol of Rockaway since the 1990s, disappeared from Beach 94th Street near the Boardwalk and was presumed to have been swept out to sea.

[88]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Rockaway is 0.006 milligrams per cubic metre (6.0×10−9 oz/cu ft), the lowest of any neighborhood in the city.

[109] Jacob Riis Park is located near the western end of the peninsula, covering approximately 262 acres (106 ha) west of Beach 149th Street in Neponsit.

[115][116] Park attractions along the beach and boardwalk include numerous play areas, restrooms, sporting fields, concession stands, and other facilities.

Frequent fires and maintenance problems led the LIRR to abandon the Queens portion of the route, which was acquired by the city to become the IND Rockaway Line.