The Port of New York (New York Harbor or Port of New York and New Jersey), located on the east coast of the United States, includes the entirety of the seven major port facilities currently in use and several historic port facilities and the entirety of the natural harbor at the mouth of the Hudson River on the Atlantic Ocean (Tidal Harbor). It also includes two free trade zones. Thus, the term geographically describes a region and is not a single institution, nor is it limited to the New York metropolitan area (more accurate would be: a plurality of institutions). However, the term "New York Harbor" is often used in everyday language only for the facilities of the joint authority of the two U.S. neighboring states, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). However, this interstate authority does not have jurisdiction over all aspects affecting the harbor area. Today, the largest cities at the mouth of the Hudson River are New York City, Jersey City and Newark.
By cargo throughput, it is the third largest port in the United States as a whole - but the largest by area. It serves both as an international deepwater port and, via the Hudson, as an inland port for parts of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
New York's economic importance today is related to its use for East Coast goods handling and passenger transportation. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 opened up a convenient transportation route to the Great Lakes, and New York rose to become the most important commercial port on the East Coast. In addition, the city was and still is a major point of immigration to the United States. Millions of immigrants came here on ships and passed through its facilities, of which Ellis Island is a relatively recent one. After immigration, which used to be more significant, tourism now dominates passenger shipping in New York Harbor.
Entering New York from Lower New York Bay, one crosses the Narrows under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (1964) into the main basin of Upper New York Bay with New York's two most famous islands (after Manhattan itself; Ellis and Liberty Island with the Statue of Liberty) to the various anchorages. Historically, access to the waters has been known to be dangerous for a variety of reasons. Most notably, the fog and storm surges that run up into the nearly right-angled funnel of the Lower Bay, depending on wind direction, are feared. Hudson Canyon, a pre-glacial submarine delta that runs centrally out into the bay, is considered a ship graveyard. To the northwest, Long Island Sound -and Long Island follow. To the south, New Jersey, all the way to Florida, follows the Atlantic Coastal Plain; including the two natural harbors of Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay and many other ports.
