Summers on Staten Island

Staten Island is one of New York City's five BOROUGHS, and it sits at the southwestern tip of the city at the entrance to New York Harbor, between the Upper and Lower New York Bays, near where the Hudson River flows into New York Harbor. Unlike Manhattan or Brooklyn, Staten Island has a much more SUBURBAN feel — wide streets, single-family homes, and quieter neighborhoods stretch across its hills. The island is connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1964. Staten Island is also home to about 500,000–510,000 people, making it a city in its own right even though it is often overlooked by tourists. Understanding where you live on a MAP — including its geography, water features, and connections to other places — is a core skill in geography and even in careers like urban planning and civil engineering.