Jones Beach

Thousands of sunbathers try to find relief from record 101-degree temperatures on a favorite Long Island oasis, Jones Beach, on July 5, 1999. Jones Beach is one of the most popular summer destinations in the country with nearly eight million visitors, outdrawing Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks combined.

“There are more than 1,200 miles of shore on Long Island, but for millions of people who come here to frolic in the sand and surf there is only one beach,” wrote David Winzelbergjune in The Times a week before this photo was taken. “For the last 70 years, Jones Beach has been the summer playground for generations of Long Islanders. A uniquely suburban refuge (where else are beaches named for parking lots?), it boasts six and a half miles of oceanfront within its 2,413 acres and a slew of other features, including miniature golf, shuffleboard and even an unofficial nude beach.”