A water vista beckons at every side street’s dead end, where one can smell the seaweed and catch a glimpse of Victorian homes’ beachfront yards.

City Island takes on a calm pace, a world away from the maritime bustle that once made this skinny, 1.5-mile stretch famous. The island is a draw mostly for its plentiful seafood restaurants, easy strolling and vibes from the past via the City Island Nautical Museum and a waterfront cemetery.

Here, one can hear birds chirp, walk without bumping into anybody and get a nod of acknowledgement that one exists from the local hot dog cart vendor. Perhaps best of all, street parking is free.

Situated between Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and Kings Point in Nassau, the island has Eastchester Bay on its west bank and Long Island Sound to the east.

“People come out here and they go ‘We’re in the Bronx?’ ” recounted Mike Carew, a former NYPD detective diver who owns Captain Mike’s Diving on the island. “I grew up in a small neighborhood where everybody knew everybody and they help each other. City Island is like that.”

Driving is the quickest way to get there from Long Island, despite tolls, because public transportation even from parts of western Nassaucould take more than two hours.

Here, visitors will find a place that’s not cookie cutter, with no chain stores except for one Dunkin’. The island is a seafood dining destination, with restaurants taking up most of the main drag, City Island Avenue. Residents born there call themselves “clam diggers” and everybody else “mussel suckers.”

Starting in the early 1800s, the community dominated the oyster harvesting industry, but when over harvesting led to the decline of oysters, City Island turned into a boat building and ship docking hub in the late 19th century. It built, maintained and stored a number of winners of America’s Cup, the best-known international sailing competition, said local reporter Barbara Dolensek, who is also vice president of the City Island Historical Society.

“People from all over the Bronx came to work here,” Dolensek said.

Those industries are gone but not forgotten. Boat service and storage businesses dot City Island. Locals have started City Island Oyster Reef, a project to reseed waters with baby oysters and restore fish habitats.

Perhaps the best draw is how the island’s size almost prevents people from exhausting themselves trying to see and do everything. The nautical museum is open only on weekends. The waterfront Pelham Cemetery invites thoughts on life, from the Civil War graves to a 19th century couple whose four children died young before they also died young. The residential streets fanning out from City Island Avenue lure architectural buffs with their varied housing styles, including Victorian and Second Empire houses.

Dolensek leads walking tours that end at her 1896 cedar shingle home, landmarked by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission and used in several movies, she said, including the 1962 film “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” starring Katharine Hepburn.

“Most people like the historic houses,” she said, “but also the sense of City Island as a small town in spite of its being in New York City.”