Port Washington, New York
hamlet in New York, United States
Port Washington is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) on the Cow Neck Peninsula in Nassau County, New York, United States. The hamlet is the anchor community of the Greater Port Washington area. The population was 16,753 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
What is now Port Washington was originally inhabited by the Matinecock Native Americans. European colonists – namely, Dutchmen and Englishmen – settled in the area in 1644, after they purchased land from the Matinecocks. Many of these settlers in modern-day Port Washington and across Cow Neck established farms or large colonial estates. Some of these early settlers belonged to prominent, early Long Island families – including members of the Hewlett, Sands, and Willets families, among others.
In the 1870s, Port Washington became an important sand-mining town; it had the largest sandbank east of the Mississippi River and easy barge access to Manhattan. Some 140 million cubic yards of local sand were used for concrete for skyscrapers in New York City (including the Empire State and Chrysler buildings), in addition to the New York City Subway. In 1998, the sand mines were redeveloped as Harbor Links – a golf course for North Hempstead residents.
“Port Washington, New York” enters the record as hamlet in New York, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Port, Washington and York can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Port Washington, New York” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Port, Washington and York provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1399190. VIAF identifies the subject as 143059788. The Library of Congress control number is n79151532. Authority coordinates are 40.829, -73.687. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1644 and 1998.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Port Washington, New York”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Port Washington, New York primary sources, Port Washington, New York archive and Port research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Port Washington, New York”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Port Washington, New York” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.