5. Midland Beach

Miller Airfield beach
Midland Beach on Staten Island’s “East Shore” is a rather small beach that shares the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk with neighboring South Beach. The beach is home to a notable sea turtle fountain, as well as tennis and shuffleball courts and a skate park. The neighborhood of Midland Beach grew into a resort area in the 1890s, featuring a 1700-foot pier jutting into the Atlantic Ocean where visitors could ride the steamboat William Story to the Battery in Manhattan.

The beach housed a boardwalk in the early 1900s, as well as theater performances and bungalows by the water. Much of the beach, including the boardwalk, was destroyed by fires in 1924 and 1929, and the beach was slowly rebuilt over the next few years. From the beach, you can see Miller Airfield, a National Parks Service site repurposed from an abandoned airfield with many of the original pieces of infrastructure still standing.