In the 19th century, Herman Melville wrote in Moby Dick that all Manhattan streets led waterward, and the shore was filled with dreamers staring out to sea. Later, New York turned its back on the harbor, ringing it with highways, parking lots and housing projects, as Broadway eclipsed the Battery. Ordinary New Yorkers lost their access to the water and even the sense that the water was there.

But there remained visionaries who saw that New York Harbor was still one of the world's great natural seaports. Marian S. Heiskell, the chairman of the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, was an early pioneer when she and other farsighted individuals helped create Gateway National Recreation Area, bringing a national park experience to those who were not afforded the opportunity to go camping in Yosemite.

It was not until this decade, however, that other visionaries stepped forward. In 2001, the National Park Service integrated Gateway with 22 other national parklands in and around the harbor, including landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, designating this new constellation as the "National Parks of New York Harbor." With 26,000 acres, the National Park Service is the largest landholder, public or private, on the waterfront.

Lower Manhattan is the epicenter of its network of harbor parks, historic sites and recreation areas that arc across three other boroughs of the city -- Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island -- and across to New Jersey on both the Upper and Lower Bays of the harbor.

In 2001, the private sector, led again by Mrs. Heiskell, was invited by the National Park Service to harness the energy of the community and provide a collective vision for these disparate places, to spearhead an innovative portfolio of programs, projects and activities to help these parks shine and to make them more accessible.

The prospect is indeed daunting. The potential is awe-inspiring. The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy stands ready to meet the challenge.