America’s 250th anniversary will bring hundreds of sailing vessels, warships and aircraft from dozens of countries to New York Harbor next year in what organizers said will be the biggest event of its kind in the city’s history.

"This is America’s home port, and on July 4, 2026, this port will serve as the world’s home port," said Chris O’Brien, president of Sail4th 250, the nonprofit organization organizing many of next year’s events, at a news conference Wednesday on the deck of the Intrepid Museum, the former aircraft carrier docked in Manhattan on the Hudson River.

Long Island, home to both loyalists and rebels during the American Revolution, will host its own events. Suffolk County leaders are working with town historians, state parks officials and others to plan some of them, including an Aug. 6, 2026, kickoff event at Sagtikos Manor in Bay Shore. Some of the proposed activities at the event include historical reenactors in period costume and performance of music from the Colonial era, according to the minutes from a recent Suffolk County planning meeting.

Chris Boyle, a Nassau County spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment.

O’Brien, joined Wednesday by Navy and Coast Guard admirals and state and city officials, described a weeklong affair wrapped around next year’s Fourth of July festivities. They did not stint on superlatives.

For starters: The events will generate an estimated $2.85 billion economic impact for the region, organizers said, a sum that is bigger than the projected impact of the region’s 2026 World Cup matches and the combined impact of the Yankees and Mets seasons and the U.S. Open.

Organizers said their numbers came from an analysis by the city's Economic Development Corporation, which estimates 6 million visitors, including 451,000 people expected to stay at least one night in the city.

On to the sailing vessels, known as "tall ships," which will include more than 60 traditionally rigged vessels, many used for training by navies from around the world. It will be "the largest parade of tall ships ever assembled," O’Brien said.

The flotilla will be roughly evenly divided between Type A and B vessels. Type A, according to Tall Ships America, consists of square-rigged vessels and others longer than 131 feet; Type B consists of traditionally rigged vessels that are shorter but whose waterline length is at least 30 feet.

The Type B vessels will travel the East River on July 3, and on July 4, the Type A will parade from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge north to the George Washington Bridge, according to a news release for Wednesday’s event. Planners expect up to 10 million spectators to watch from the New York and New Jersey shorelines, joined by thousands more in pleasure boats on the water. The public will be welcomed aboard the vessels while they are in port.

Fleet Week, which usually brings U.S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel and vessels to the city around Memorial Day weekend, will instead coincide with the Independence Day festivities in 2026, said Rear Adm. Carl Lahti. It, too, will be "larger ... and much more grand," he said.

The events will be on a scale that appears comparable to the June military parade in Washington, D.C., that celebrated the Army's 250th anniversary. It will incorporate an international naval review in which ships and aircraft from 130 nations have been invited to participate. The ships will "assemble in formation and steam past a reviewing platform," likely aboard a ship at anchor, manned by "a senior official of the United States government." Lahti later said, when asked by a reporter who the official might be, that he did not know.

When the tall ships depart for Boston on July 9, 2026, their route will take them along Long Island’s South Shore. Organizers of the New York Harbor events say they will also work with area yacht clubs to bring members with sailing and power boats to the city for the Fourth of July parade.