Captree State Park

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Captree State Park is a state park in Suffolk County, New York in the USA. The park is located on the easternmost end of Jones Island ( the barrier island that includes Jones Beach ) and overlooks the Fire Island Inlet and the westernmost section of Fire Island, partly in the Town of Babylon.

The park offers a marina and boat launch, fishing, picnic tables, a playground and recreation programs.

Captree State Park lies at the eastern tip of Jones Beach Island in the heart of the fishing grounds. Captree is a fisherman's haven and a picnicker's delight. The park features a boat basin with open and charter boats available for fishing, as well as scuba diving, sightseeing and excursion boats.

Captree Cove Fish House is within the Captree State Park at the eastern tip of the Ocean Parkway. It is convenient to all of Long island via either Jones Beach from the West or the Sagtikos/ Robert Moses parkway from the East. Facilities and Services.....

The Park features a boat basin with open and Charter boats available for fishing, as well as scuba diving, sight seeing and excursions. One may also fish from two handicapped accessible piers or from the beach at Fire Island Inlet. Narrated sightseeing tours are operated daily during the summer months. In addition, the Park offers a boat launch ramp with parking for 64 boat trailers.

The Captree Boatman's Association.....

The Captree Boatman's Association maintains an office to provide information on open boats and their sailing times as well as information on Charter boats. The office is staffed from March to September. For nformation call 631 669 6464.

Environmental Information.....

This Park offers an excellent opportunity to observe many species of Gull, Terns and other sea faring birds. The natural area in this Park provides an ideal location for one of the largest nesting areas of herring gulls along the Atlantic coast. Guided nature walks are available to families, children, clubs, youth organizations. For more information contact the Environmental Office at 631 581 1072.

The Robert Moses Causeway (Captree Causeway)

The State of New York proposes to build at great expense with our taxpayers' money, a sprawling trestle between West Islip and Captree Island, across the most beautiful part of Great South Bay - 3½ miles of elevated roadway 30 feet high - directly across this great bay that has made our communities famous for their natural beauty. Shall the famous beauty of our Great South Bay be destroyed? Shall our shores be cluttered with noisy, fume-spreading, transient automobile traffic?

In the years since, Moses befriended Gulden, who became a proponent of Long Island's park and parkway system. While Gulden lent his support, work on the Captree State Parkway and Causeway waited until the postwar era.

The first section of the Robert Moses Causeway, between the Southern State Parkway and EXIT RM2 (NY 27A / Montauk Highway) in West Islip, was completed in 1953. The original construction of the parkway comprised of two 22-foot-wide roadways, each carrying two lanes of traffic, with the opposing roadways separated by a nine-foot-wide grass median.

The first causeway bridge, which had one northbound and one southbound lane, was opened to traffic in April 1954. The two-mile long span across Great South Bay to Captree Island features a 600-foot-long main span, with a 60-foot clearance for boats. On either side of the main steel-arch span, a series of piles support the roadway 25 feet above Great South Bay. The piles are arranged not only vertically, but also diagonally. The diagonal piles, which are called "batter piles," resist the forces along the roadway such as those caused by vehicles stopping or starting, as well as those caused by the expansion and contraction of the bridge deck due to temperature changes.

At the southern terminus of the Great South Bay span, the Robert Moses Causeway continues south through Captree Island, where an interchange is provided for local traffic. After crossing the State Boat Channel over a 665-foot-long bascule bridge, the causeway meets the Ocean Parkway at a cloverleaf interchange. This interchange, which provides access to Captree State Park, Gilgo State Park and Jones Beach State Park, served as the southern terminus of the Robert Moses Causeway until 1964.

The Fire Island Bridge continues the two-lane road, one lane in each direction, across Fire Island Inlet to its terminus at Robert Moses State Park. When first proposed in 1938, the span was to be a vertical-lift span with a design similar to that of the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge. Later, the design of the Fire Island Bridge was changed to conform with that of the Great South Bay span: a 600-foot steel-arch span with a 60-foot clearance, flanked to the north and south by low-level causeway approaches. This final link of the Robert Moses Causeway opened in 1964.