Long Island Sound
estuary on the east coast of the United States
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York state to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches 110 mi (180 km) from the East River and the Throgs Neck Bridge in New York City, along the North Shore of Long Island, to Block Island Sound. The sound forms part of the Intracoastal Waterway.
A mix of freshwater from tributaries, and saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound is 21 miles (34 km) at its widest point and varies in depth from 65 to 230 feet (20 to 70 m).
Shoreline cities
Major Connecticut cities on the sound include Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, New Haven, and New London. Cities and towns on the New York side of the sound include Rye, Glen Cove, New Rochelle, North Hempstead, Oyster Bay, Smithtown, Port Jefferson, Brookhaven and Riverhead, Larchmont, Mamaroneck and portions of Queens and the Bronx in New York City.
Climate and geography
The climate of Long Island Sound is warm temperate or Cfa in the Köppen climate classification. Summers are hot and humid often with convective showers and strong sunshine, while the cooler months feature cold temperatures and a mix of rain and occasional snow.
Glacial history
About 18,000 years ago, Connecticut, Long Island Sound, and much of Long Island were covered by a thick sheet of ice, part of the Late Wisconsin Glacier.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Long Island Sound” is estuary on the east coast of the United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Long, Island and Sound, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “estuary on the east coast of the United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q867460. VIAF identifies the subject as 240279110. The Library of Congress control number is no2002019884. Authority coordinates are 41.097, -72.881. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. 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.
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This entry incorporates text from “Long Island Sound” 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.