Just a few hours from Manhattan, Greenport offers a surprising glimpse into American history, and this month, it is home to a historic fireboat that battled fires for 72 years and served at Ground Zero after 9/11.
For first-time visitors to New York City, Times Square is often the obvious place to start. And understandably so. The lights, theaters, skyscrapers, and constant energy have made this intersection one of the most recognizable places on earth. But there is another New York, far from the crowds of Manhattan, where visitors can trade the glow of giant digital billboards for sunlight shimmering across the water and discover stories that rarely make it onto the standard tourist itinerary.
That other New York is Greenport.
Located at the eastern end of Long Island’s North Fork, in Suffolk County, Greenport is about 100 miles from Manhattan. The journey itself feels like a gradual change of scenery, the urban landscape gives way to small communities, farms, and vineyards, and before long, the water begins to dominate the horizon. Greenport is a small waterfront village on Peconic Bay, across from Shelter Island, with a history deeply connected to the sea. It is one of those places that makes visitors realize that seeing New York can mean much more than simply traveling between Queens, where JFK Airport is located, and Manhattan.
Greenport was incorporated as a village in 1838 and, during the 19th century, became an important center for fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. The arrival of the Long Island Rail Road in 1844 transformed the community even further, making Greenport the railroad’s North Fork terminus. Today, the train still arrives at the same place, Greenport remains the end of the line. From there, the journey can continue, this time by water.
The village’s maritime heritage is woven into its streets and waterfront. Mitchell Park and its marina sit right at the heart of the experience. There is a historic 1920s carousel still turning, along with restaurants, small shops, and boats moving in and out of the harbor. Just a short ferry ride away is Shelter Island, a small island nestled between Long Island’s two forks that holds one of the region’s most remarkable natural treasures: about one-third of its territory is protected by Mashomack Preserve, covering more than 2,300 acres of forests, fields, wetlands, and roughly 11 miles of shoreline. The ferry from Greenport operates year-round. The crossing is quick, easy, and surprisingly affordable: a walk-on passenger pays just $3 each way; bringing a car costs $16 for the vehicle and driver, plus $3 per additional passenger, while a same-day round trip for a vehicle and driver costs $26. It is a short crossing that changes the experience completely: within minutes, visitors leave Greenport Harbor behind and arrive on an island where nature takes center stage. For anyone accustomed to Manhattan’s relentless pace, Greenport can feel almost like a different time zone, emotionally, if not geographically.
But there is an especially compelling reason to put Greenport on your map right now.
Docked at Mitchell Park Marina is the Fire Fighter, the historic FDNY fireboat now known as America’s Fireboat.
Built in 1938, the vessel entered service just as the United States was approaching the Second World War. It remained in service with the New York City Fire Department for 72 years, responding to more than 50 major fires and becoming the longest-serving fireboat in FDNY history.
Its capabilities are still impressive today. The firefighting system could pump 20,000 gallons of water per minute through nine firefighting monitors positioned on the vessel’s upper deck, roughly 75,000 liters every minute. But no number can fully convey the historical importance of this ship.
The Fire Fighter was in service during some of the most dramatic moments in New York City’s history.
And it was there on September 11, 2001.
Following the attacks on the World Trade Center, Lower Manhattan’s water system was severely compromised. The Fire Fighter remained at the site for approximately three weeks, supplying water for firefighting operations at Ground Zero. A vessel built in 1938 was still working at full capacity more than six decades later.
It is difficult to imagine a more powerful metaphor for New York itself: while part of Manhattan lay in ruins, a ship built before the war continued pumping water to help the city confront one of the darkest moments in its history.
Today, however, visitors do not have to admire the Fire Fighter from the dock.
They can step aboard.
The vessel now serves as both a museum and a memorial and welcomes visitors in Greenport. And that is where the experience takes on an entirely different dimension. This is not a replica built to recreate the past. Visitors are stepping onto a real working vessel that sailed New York’s waters, fought fires, and took part in historic operations.
It is like walking through a doorway and stepping into an old photograph.
Perhaps that is Greenport’s greatest discovery: there is a New York that does not appear on the most familiar postcards.
A New York where history is not necessarily behind glass. Sometimes, it is right there on the waterfront, in the buildings, or aboard a ship.
Greenport is also an ideal gateway to Long Island’s North Fork, a region known for its wineries and rural landscape, a striking contrast to the skyscrapers of Manhattan. The drive itself helps explain why so many visitors head toward Long Island’s East End in search of a slower pace without ever really leaving New York State.
So perhaps it is time to ask a different question.
When planning a trip to New York, why limit yourself to the places everyone already knows?
Why not set aside a day to discover a small waterfront village where the railroad ends at the edge of the sea?
Why not stroll along a historic waterfront, take a ferry, explore a village shaped by its maritime past, and then step aboard a fireboat that spent 72 years answering the call?
Times Square will still be glowing when you get back.
But Greenport will have shown you another side of New York, quieter, more natural, and deeply connected to the sea and to the history of the region. A place where you do not have to fight through thousands of people to feel that you have discovered something special.
And this September 2026, there is one more reason to go.
As the United States marks the 25th anniversary of September 11, the Fire Fighter is back in Greenport. It is a rare opportunity to see up close a vessel that does not simply belong to New York’s history, it helped make that history.
Perhaps the best souvenir of your trip will not be a photograph in front of a giant screen in Times Square.
Perhaps it will be a photograph standing beside a ship built in 1938.
Because sometimes, discovering a New York you have never seen before is as simple as following the road to where the tracks end, and the water begins.
