Long Island
A New Yorker pictures the island a bit differently, however. Because two counties—Queens and Kings (Brooklyn)—of the island's four total counties are boroughs of New York City, only the remaining Nassau and Suffolk counties form Long Island in the minds of many city dwellers. Queens and Brooklyn account for the majority of the island's total population.
The northern side of Nassau county forms the island's Gold Coast, whose beautiful gardens and elegant estates were the aspirations of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel “The Great Gatsby.” Modern-day visitors and those on vacation can tour mansions, manor houses, nature preserves and gardens and find many other things to do in Nassau County. Some of New York's most well-known beaches extend from western Nassau County along the southern shore through Suffolk County. These include Jones Beach State Park and Fire Island National Seashore, two of the top things to see in Long Island.
At the eastern end of Suffolk County are the North and South Forks, site of some of New York's most productive farmland. The more urban South Fork also is known as the Hamptons. The populations of these quiet towns swell each summer with the wealthy, the famous and others who wish to escape the hectic and humid city.
From such 20th-century mansions as Old Westbury House in Nassau County to the 17th-century saltboxes of Sag Harbor in Suffolk County, carefully preserved buildings and houses dot Long Island.
Places and towns on Long Island with individual place listings are (clockwise around the island from the northwest) Oyster Bay, Centerport, Stony Brook, Setauket, Riverhead, Cutchogue, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, Montauk, Amagansett, East Hampton, Southampton, Fire Island National Seashore, Oakdale, Wantagh, Old Bethpage and Garden City.