Fire Island, located off the southern coast of Long Island, has long been an important point for both local and trans-Atlantic shipping traffic. Fire Island derives its name from the Dutch word 'vier' which means 'four'. When the Dutch settled New Amsterdam they referred to the area near Great South Bay as the 'Vier' islands which the English mapped as the 'Fier Islands' which gradually became 'Fire Island'. As the American economy grew in the 19th century, the need to mark the sandbars lying just off the southern Long Island coast became necessary to safeguard marine commerce.