Narragansett Bay. Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. It is often portrayed in art emphasizing its natural beauty and coastal landscapes. Artists like Winslow Homer and Childe Hassam have depicted the bay's serene waters, boats, and vibrant skies, capturing its maritime character. The Bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Small parts of it extend into Massachusetts. There are more than 30 islands in the Bay; the three largest ones are Aquidneck Island, Conanicut Island, and Prudence Island. Bodies of water that are part of Narragansett Bay include the Sakonnet River, Mount Hope Bay, and the southern, tidal part of the Taunton River. The bay opens on Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean; Block Island lies less than 20 miles southwest of its opening. Narragansett Bay can be seen on NOAA Chart 13221. Narragansett is derived from the southern New England Algonquian word Naiaganset meaning of the small point of land. Narragansett Bay comprises an area of about 147 miles. The watershed has seven river sub-drainage basins, including the Taunton, Pawtuxet, and Blackstone Rivers, and they provide freshwater input at approximately 2.1 billion gallons per day. River water inflow has a seasonal variability, with the highest flow in the spring and the minimum flow in early fall. The bay is a ria estuary which is composed of the Sakonnet River valley, the East Passage river valley, and the West Passage river valley. The bathymetry varies greatly among the three passages, with the average depths of the East, West, and Sakonnet River passages being 121 feet, 33 feet, and 25 feet respectively. Narragansett Bay is a ria that consists of a series of flooded river valleys formed of dropped crustal blocks in a horst and graben system that is slowly subsiding between a shifting fault system. Providence is Rhode Island's capital and largest city and sits at the northernmost arm of the bay. Many of Providence's suburbs are also on the bay, including Warwick and Cranston. Newport is located at the south end of Aquidneck Island on the ocean, and is the home of the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and a major United States Navy training center. The city of Fall River, Massachusetts is located at the confluence of the Taunton River and Mount Hope Bay, which form the northeasternmost part of Narragansett Bay. The southwest side of the bay includes the seaside tourist towns of Narragansett and Wickford. Quonset Point, south of Warwick, gives its name to the Quonset hut. Roger Williams University is located in Bristol, Rhode Island overlooking the Bay.