Belle Harbor (New York City, New York)

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Belle Harbor is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens and a part of the Rockaway Peninsula. Although there are no formal boundaries for the area, Belle Harbor is often used to refer to the area between Beach 125th and Beach 142nd Streets.Belle Harbor was developed in 1907 by Frederick J. Lancaster, who had earlier developed the Edgemere neighborhood.

On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, bound for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, crashed in the center of Belle Harbor, killing all 260 passengers and crew on board the plane as well as five people on the ground. Many of the passengers on the plane were from the Dominican community in Washington Heights. After consultation with the families in the Belle Harbor and Washington Heights communities, a memorial has been erected at Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, a major shopping district and transportation hub in the area.