page_title: Rockaway, Queens
section_title: 19th and 20th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Rockaway, Queens / History / Disasters and events / 19th and 20th centuries
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking east on a sunny afternoon at boardwalk stripped by Sandy.
context_page_description: The Rockaway Peninsula, commonly referred to as The Rockaways or Rockaway, is the name of a peninsula within the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, New York. Relatively isolated from Manhattan and other more urban parts of the city, Rockaway became a popular summer retreat in the 1830s. It has since become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods. In the 2010s, it became one of the city's most quickly gentrifying areas.
  The peninsula is divided into nine neighborhoods or sections. From east to west, they are:
  Far Rockaway, from the Nassau County line to Beach 32nd Street;
  Bayswater, located to the northeast of Far Rockaway, along the southeastern shore of Jamaica Bay
  Edgemere, from Beach 32nd Street to Beach 56th Street;
  Arverne, from Beach 56th Street to Beach 79th Street;
  Rockaway Beach, from 79th Street to Beach 108th Street;
  Rockaway Park, from Beach 108th Street to Beach 126th Street;
  Belle Harbor, from Beach 126th Street to Beach 141st Street;
  Neponsit, Beach 141st Street to Beach 149th Street;
  Breezy Point, from Beach 149th to the western tip.
context_section_description: Storms and fires damaged many of the attractions on the Rockaway Peninsula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On August 24, 1893, an intense storm, later classified as a hurricane, destroyed Hog Island, a mile-long island off the Rockaway coast that supported bath houses, restaurants and other leisure-time venues. On January 3, 1914, a violent storm devastated the peninsula, and swept the 1,200-seat Arverne Pier Theater away to sea. On June 15, 1922, much of Arverne was leveled by a fire that left about 10,000 people homeless, although the neighborhood was quick to rebuild.
  On June 6, 1993, a ship called the Golden Venture beached near Fort Tilden on the western half of the Rockaway Peninsula. The ship contained 296 Chinese illegal immigrants including 13 crew members. Ten people drowned trying to reach shore.
caption: Boardwalk stripped by Hurricane Sandy in 2012
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