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If your idea of a big Fourth of July crowd is shoulder-to-shoulder on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, get ready to think much, much bigger. Next summer, New York Harbor will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with what organizers are calling the largest international maritime gathering in U.S. history.
From July 3 through 9, the Port of New York and New Jersey will host a weeklong spectacle featuring more than 60 international tall ships from more than 20 countries, more than 40 allied and U.S. naval vessels, a British aircraft carrier, Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 and an aerial armada of over 100 aircrafts led by the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels. By the numbers alone, it’s set to eclipse every Operation Sail celebration that came before it, from 1964 through 2012.
The main event hits on July 4, natch, with an International Parade of Sail that will send towering Class A tall ships gliding under the Verrazzano Bridge, past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson to the George Washington Bridge. They will be joined by smaller Class B ships, gray-hulled naval vessels in a rare International Naval Review and a sky full of flyovers, all before the night wraps with the 50th anniversary of Macy’s July 4th Fireworks over Manhattan.
City officials project that as many as eight million spectators could line the 15-mile stretch of New York City and New Jersey coast to watch it all unfold. The economic ripple is just as outsized: an NYC Economic Development Corporation analysis estimates $2.85 billion in total economic activity, including $730 million in net new impact for the city.
The show won’t end when the fireworks fade. From July 5 to 8, many of the international tall ships will be open for free public boarding at piers across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey. The week also brings food festivals, cultural programming and a ticker-tape parade honoring post-9/11 veterans and first responders.
It’s not just another Fleet Week moment. For America’s 250th, the harbor itself becomes the main stage, with tall ships, naval power and aerial displays converging in a way the city hasn’t seen in decades.