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| Where Was NCIS: New York Filmed? All New York City Locations Revealed. |
NCIS: New York was filmed entirely across New York City, with production moving through specific streets, neighbourhoods, waterfront areas, parks and major landmarks rather than relying heavily on studio recreations. Principal photography began on July 13, 2026, on Gerritsen Avenue in Brooklyn, before the production expanded across the city through July, August and September ahead of its October premiere. Not every exact filming setup was publicly disclosed during production, which is fairly understandable when a working television set can become rather difficult to manage once curious visitors start turning up. Still, the locations that have been identified give a good idea of how extensively the series used the real city as its backdrop.
The 2026 series follows Sam Hanna, played by LL Cool J, as the veteran NCIS Senior Special Agent returns to his hometown and joins a newly established New York field office. The story moves through military investigations, city infrastructure, ports and waterways, giving the production plenty of reasons to leave the studio behind. With Scott Caan, Jennifer Beals, Jacqueline Byers, Shane Harper and Devin Druid also starring, the series is scheduled to premiere on CBS on October 6, 2026, at 9pm ET, with streaming on Paramount+.
The production’s main base was Brooklyn, and one of its most important locations was the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The historic industrial complex makes an obvious backdrop for a series dealing with naval crimes, military investigations and national infrastructure. Its combination of working industrial spaces, waterfront surroundings and distinctive New York architecture gives the show a more convincing physical setting than a generic studio corridor ever could. In the world of NCIS, apparently even a simple walk-and-talk needs to look like something important is about to happen.
Gerritsen Beach provided another very different side of Brooklyn. Production used Gerritsen Avenue for scenes connected to the pilot, including the emotionally significant death-notification sequence. The neighbourhood's residential streets and waterfront character give those scenes a more intimate atmosphere, contrasting with the technology-heavy command environments used elsewhere in the series. The production began principal photography here on July 13, making Gerritsen Avenue one of the earliest identifiable locations associated with the new drama.
The surrounding Gerritsen Beach waterfront area also fits naturally with the series' broader visual approach. Its combination of residential streets and access to the water helps establish the New York that exists beyond skyscrapers and tourist landmarks. For a crime drama built around military and naval cases, that mix of everyday neighbourhood life and waterfront geography is particularly useful.
Brooklyn Heights was another substantial filming area, with production units working around local streets including Henry Street. The neighbourhood's historic brownstones and tightly arranged blocks provided the setting for fast-moving pursuits and local investigative sequences. It is the sort of location that can make a chase feel considerably more complicated simply because there is nowhere to hide once the camera starts following you.
The production also used the surrounding Brooklyn Heights residential streets, allowing the series to move between recognisable architecture and more conventional urban action. The area's mixture of historic buildings and busy city movement gives NCIS: New York another visual texture without requiring the story to leave Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Bridge Park brought a much more recognisable New York setting into the series. Located beneath the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, the waterfront park was used for an outdoor crime-scene setup, with cameras focusing on the glass pavilion around Jane's Carousel. The location combines the city's historic architecture, waterfront views and enormous bridge structures in a single frame, which is almost suspiciously convenient for television.
The production's use of Jane's Carousel and its surrounding pavilion also creates a striking contrast with the show's investigative material. A beautiful public space becoming the backdrop for a military-related investigation is exactly the sort of visual contradiction that makes an urban crime drama work. It is also considerably more interesting than another anonymous office car park.
Greenpoint extended the production towards northern Brooklyn, with filming around Box Street, McGuinness Boulevard and the area surrounding the Pulaski Bridge. These locations supplied a more industrial urban character, fitting storylines involving logistics, transportation and the infrastructure connecting different parts of the city.
The Pulaski Bridge area is particularly useful visually because it brings together roads, industrial buildings and elevated infrastructure. For NCIS: New York, where the characters are dealing with threats extending across a major metropolitan network, those surroundings help make the city itself feel like part of the story rather than merely decoration.
In Crown Heights, production used streets around Kingston Avenue and Park Place for tracking and residential stakeout sequences. The architecture here gives the series another residential setting, allowing the characters to investigate locations that feel lived-in rather than constantly placing them against recognisable landmarks.
The wider Kingston Avenue and Park Place area also gives the production room to create surveillance scenes without making every sequence look like a postcard version of New York. That matters for a procedural: the city needs to look ordinary enough for characters to disappear into it, even when the plot is anything but ordinary.
Moving into Manhattan, the Upper West Side became another filming zone. Crews captured sequences along West 68th Street through West 73rd Street, incorporating sections of Amsterdam Avenue, Columbus Avenue and Broadway. The combination of residential buildings, commercial activity and constant traffic gave the production a busy urban environment for tracking scenes.
The surrounding Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue corridors also add a sense of scale to the series. These are streets where the city is always moving, meaning the production can make even a relatively simple pursuit feel like a logistical headache. That works rather well for a show about agents trying to keep up with criminals across one of the world's busiest cities.
Chelsea and NoMad supplied another Manhattan backdrop, particularly around West 25th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues and the surrounding streets towards Broadway. Production used the area for complex exterior sequences, helping create the high-energy metropolitan atmosphere expected from the series.
The wider West 25th Street and Broadway area is also visually useful because of its mixture of commercial buildings, traffic and dense pedestrian movement. It gives NCIS: New York an urban environment where characters can conduct surveillance, chase leads or simply attempt to cross the street without looking as though they have wandered onto a film set. That last part may be the most challenging stunt of all.
Central Park provided one of the series' most recognisable outdoor settings. Production used the enormous park for expansive forensic sequences in which characters investigate evidence hidden within the city's green spaces. The location gives the series a welcome visual break from streets and buildings while still keeping the investigation firmly inside New York.
The park's size also allows the production to create a different sense of geography. Instead of compressing every investigation into a few blocks, the characters can move through open landscapes, paths and wooded sections while the surrounding city remains close enough to remind viewers exactly where they are.
Then there is the Queensboro Bridge, which features in a major cinematic sequence involving the lead agents. The bridge provides an appropriately enormous setting for a series whose central team is responsible for protecting critical infrastructure. Its scale reinforces one of the show's central ideas: the team's cases are not confined to individual crimes but can involve the systems connecting the city itself.
The surrounding Queensboro Bridge approaches and Manhattan–Queens connection further strengthen that infrastructure-focused visual language. Bridges, roads and waterways become more than scenery because the storyline repeatedly places national security and military investigations inside the machinery of everyday urban life.
There is also a practical reason not to expect a complete map of every camera setup from the production. Television crews can work across a street for only a short period, use temporary vehicles or equipment, and move on before a location becomes widely known. Revealing every precise setup while filming is under way can also make life unnecessarily difficult for the cast and crew. In other words, sometimes the best filming-location guide is one that admits the city is considerably bigger than the internet's ability to catalogue it.
My take on the locations is that NCIS: New York benefits enormously from actually looking like New York. The Brooklyn Navy Yard gives the series its military backbone, Gerritsen Beach brings it down to street level, Brooklyn Heights adds character, while Brooklyn Bridge Park delivers those instantly recognisable skyline moments. Manhattan then raises the scale through Central Park, the Upper West Side, Chelsea, NoMad and the Queensboro Bridge.
It is a smart visual mix because the show does not need to make every scene scream “LOOK, NEW YORK!” The city can simply exist around the characters. And honestly, that makes the locations more convincing. A crime drama filmed entirely among postcard landmarks would become exhausting very quickly. Here, the contrast between ordinary residential streets, industrial spaces and famous city locations gives the fictional NCIS office somewhere that feels properly lived in.
For viewers planning a trip, several of these locations are accessible public places, including Brooklyn Bridge Park, Jane's Carousel, Central Park and many of the surrounding streets used across Brooklyn and Manhattan. Others are working or controlled locations, so access can depend on normal public rules rather than the fact that a television production happened there. Either way, the series offers plenty of real-world places to add to a New York itinerary if you fancy doing your own unofficial NCIS: New York tour.
As filming continued through late September 2026, the production completed its initial block of episodes ahead of the October launch. More precise locations may become known over time as episodes air and additional production details emerge. So, which NCIS: New York filming location would you put on your New York bucket list first: the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Jane's Carousel, Central Park, the Upper West Side or the Queensboro Bridge? Let us know which one you would visit and whether you think the series makes good use of the city.