The boardwalk is the main feature of a public park that stretches from Fort Wadsworth and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Miller Field, both part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Amusements continued to occupy the boardwalk until the late 1950s, when water pollution and other changes started to repel potential visitors.

When built it was 40 feet (12 m) wide for its length, half that of the 80-foot-wide (24 m) Riegelmann Boardwalk at Coney Island, located across the Lower New York Bay in Brooklyn.

The FDR Boardwalk was made with concrete and timber and contains several pavilions, restrooms, and "comfort stations" along its length.

The beaches contain facilities for baseball, handball, shuffleboard, bocce, checkers, volleyball, and roller hockey, as well as the Ben Soto Skate Park and the Ocean Breeze Fishing Pier.

[10] The Detective Russel Timoshenko Soccer Field, named after a police officer killed in 2007, is located further north on the beach at Slater Boulevard.

It was donated in 1998 by the Staten Island borough president and consists of six bronze depictions of dolphins, attached to poles with multicolored water jets.

[20][21] By 2010, the skate park had deteriorated and the soon-to-be U.S. Representative for Staten Island, Michael Grimm, had promised to fix it.

[22] Since being renovated in 2011, the skate park has been criticized by local skateboarders and bikers who state that it lacks a variety of traditional skatepark features such as ramps.

By 1882, businessmen realized that the area could be developed as a resort,[25] and amusements such as theaters, hotels, bathing pavilions, and casinos were added along the shore.

[26] As a result of its easy accessibility from Brooklyn and Manhattan, the resorts evolved into amusement places similar to Coney Island.

It contained a 1,700-foot (520 m) pier jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, where visitors could catch the steamboat William Story to the Battery at the tip of Lower Manhattan.

[35] During World War I, air and water pollution quality and fears of German attacks discouraged tourists from coming to Staten Island.

[36] However, visitation rebounded after the war, and by 1923 Staten Island was seeing record-high numbers of visitors, including 150,000 on a single day in June 1923.

[32][47] A law passed by the New York State Legislature in 1930 allocated $1 million for the construction of a beach and boardwalk at Staten Island, running between Fort Wadsworth and Miller Field.

[49] Subsequently, Staten Island borough president Joseph A. Palma proposed constructing a boardwalk to connect South Beach and New Dorp.

[5] On August 11, 1935, officials held three groundbreaking ceremonies with more than 10,000 spectators combined, which marked the start of construction.

[56] Nevertheless, the boardwalk was built relatively quickly, and the first 1-mile (1.6 km) section between Fort Wadsworth and South Beach was nearly completed by the end of 1936.

[61] The United States Army announced plans for a pier at Lily Pond Avenue, at the northern end of the FDR Boardwalk, in 1940.

[64] Staten Island borough president Edward G. Baker and NYC Parks commissioner Moses proposed a redevelopment of the South Beach–Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk in 1953.

[50] The $6.46 million redevelopment of Staten Island's East Shore beaches was commenced the following March,[49][65][52] though the project was not approved until that May.

[36] The renovation was performed in conjunction with the planning of what would become the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which would provide Staten Island's first physical connection to the rest of New York City.

[69] The boardwalk started to decline in the 1950s because of issues such as water pollution,[70] caused by sewage outflows from Manhattan and New Jersey flowing into the bay.

[71] Another issue was the withdrawal of Staten Island Railway services from South Beach in the mid-1950s, basically isolating the boardwalk from all except residents of nearby areas.

[74] In 1985, a small part of the South Beach–Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk, as well as three other city beaches and Central Park's Sheep Meadow, were designated as "quiet zones" where loud radio-playing was prohibited.

[75][76] In the mid-1980s, the NYC Parks budget increased greatly, allowing the agency to renovate two ballfields at the boardwalk in 1986,[77] as well as install new benches.

[93] In June 2022, the United States Congress provided funds for the East Shore Seawall paralleling the boardwalk;[94][95] construction began at the end of that year.