Saving Fire Island from Robert Moses: The Fight for a National Seashore

By Christopher Verga

With its unspoiled, tranquil shorelines, Fire Island has been an oasis for vacationers for more than 150 years. To the polarizing "master builder" Robert Moses, its coastline was ripe for the construction of an Ocean Parkway extension. Standing up to those ambitions were the seventeen individualistic communities of Fire Island, unified in their love for their sun-washed sandy beaches. To maintain a traditional way of life with limited access to motor vehicles, the community began the fight for federal protection through the creation of the Fire Island National Seashore. Author Christopher Verga presents this triumphant struggle against the Goliath of twentieth-century New York development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Mar 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781439666432

Christopher Verga

Christopher Verga is an instructor in Long Island history and the foundations of American history at Suffolk Community College and contributes to the online local news sites Greater Babylon, Greater Bay Shore, Greater Patchogue and Fire Island News. His published works include the Civil Rights Movement on Long Island (Arcadia Publishing, Images of America), Bay Shore (Arcadia Publishing, Images of America), Saving Fire Island from Robert Moses (The History Press), World War II Long Island: The Homefront in Nassau and Suffolk (The History Press) and Cold War Long Island (The History Press). Christopher has a doctorate in education from St. John's University.