Hudson River Park
Encyclopedia
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
that extends from 59th Street
59th Street (Manhattan)
59th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan runs east-west, from York Avenue to the West Side Highway, with a discontinuity between Ninth Avenue/Columbus Avenue and Eighth Avenue/Central Park West for the Time Warner Center. Although it is bi-directional for most of its length, the...
south to Battery Park in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Bicycle and pedestrian paths, including the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway
Manhattan Waterfront Greenway
The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a foreshoreway for walking or cycling, long, around the island of Manhattan. The largest portions are operated by the New York City Department of Parks. It is separated from motor traffic, and many sections also separate pedestrians from cyclists...
, span the park north to south, opening up the waterfront for recreational use. The park includes tennis and soccer fields, batting cage
Batting cage
A batting cage is an enclosed cage for baseball players to practice the skill of batting.It is usually made of netting or a chain-link fence and rectangular in shape. A batter stands at one end of the cage, with a pitching machine at the opposing end...
s, children's playground, dog run, recreational piers, and many other features.
Hudson River Park connects many other recreational sites and landmarks including Battery Park, Battery Park City
Battery Park City, Manhattan
Battery Park City is a planned community at the southwestern tip of lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. The land upon which it stands was created by land reclamation on the Hudson River using 1.2 million cubic yards of soil and rocks excavated during the construction of the World...
, The World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
site, the World Financial Center
World Financial Center
The World Financial Center is a complex of buildings across West Street from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan in New York City, overlooking the Hudson River. This complex is home to offices of companies including Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets, Nomura Group, the Wall Street...
/ Winter Garden, Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers is a series of piers on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City that was a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s that was used by the RMS Lusitania and was the destination of the RMS Titanic....
, Pier 57
Pier 57
Pier 57 is a long pier built on floating concrete caissons in the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1952, it is located near the end of 15th Street on the West Side Highway, just south of the Chelsea Piers sports complex.-Construction:...
, Pier 63
Pier 63
Pier 63 was the name for a former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad railroad barge on the Hudson River in New York City, on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan. It was originally located near 23rd Street, adjacent to Chelsea Piers and Hudson River Park...
(site of historic ships Lightship Frying Pan
Frying Pan (lightship)
Frying Pan is a lightvessel moored at Pier 66a in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It served at Frying Pan Shoals, off Cape Fear in North Carolina, for over 30 years.-Frying Pan Shoals Station:...
and Fireboat
Fireboat
A fireboat is a specialized watercraft and with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipment....
John J. Harney), Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum
Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum
The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum is a military and maritime history museum with a collection of museum ships in New York City. It is located at Pier 86 at 46th Street on the West Side of Manhattan. The museum showcases the World War II aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, the submarine , a Concorde...
, and Riverside Park
Riverside Park (Manhattan)
Riverside Park is a scenic waterfront public park on the Upper West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The park consists of a narrow four-mile strip of land between the Hudson River and the gently...
. It runs through the Manhattan neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
, Battery Park City, TriBeCa
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
, Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, Gansevoort Market (The Meatpacking District
Meatpacking District, Manhattan
The Meatpacking District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan which runs roughly from West 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street, and from the Hudson River east to Hudson Street, although recently it is sometimes considered to have extended north to West 16th Street and east...
), Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
, Midtown
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
West, and Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
(Clinton).
It is a joint New York State
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and New York City collaboration and is a 550 acres (2.2 km²) park, the biggest in Manhattan after Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
. The park arose as part of the West Side Highway
West Side Highway
The West Side Highway is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A that runs from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern tip of Manhattan. It replaced the West Side Elevated Highway, built between 1929 and 1951, which was shut down in 1973 due to neglect and lack of...
replacement project in the wake of the abandoned Westway plan.
Amenities
Recreational facilities of many kinds are located throughout Hudson River Park, catering to organized and individual sports, leisure activities, and activities for children. A defining physical feature of Hudson River Park is the 5.0-mile bike and running path that runs the park’s length, connecting northward to Riverside Park South at West 59th Street and southward to Battery ParkBattery Park
Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
.
Scattered throughout the park are numerous fields and courts, with Chelsea Waterside Park (West 23rd Street and 11th Avenue) being one center of sports activity. The park contains a sports field, basketball court, a playground with water features during the summer months, and a dog run named “Best of New York” by New York Magazine in May 2005.
Pier 84 at West 44th Street is also packed with activities. Free fishing with Big City Fishing is available on the pier as well as rowing, boat building, and other maritime related activities, including a water taxi
New York Water Taxi
New York Water Taxi is a water taxi service based in Red Hook, Brooklyn offering commuter and sightseeing service mainly to points along the East River and Hudson River...
stop. Also on the pier are a dog run and playground, and the casual restaurant PD O’Hurleys.
Other sporting facilities include basketball courts at Canal Street
Canal Street (Manhattan)
Canal Street is a major street in New York City, crossing lower Manhattan to join New Jersey in the west to Brooklyn in the east . It forms the main spine of Chinatown, and separates it from Little Italy...
and another at Harrison Street, Tennis courts south of Pier 40 between Houston and Canal Streets, and a temporary skate park at West 30th Street. The Trapeze School of New York operates on the roof of Pier 40.
The largest sporting complex in Hudson River Park is the Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers is a series of piers on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City that was a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s that was used by the RMS Lusitania and was the destination of the RMS Titanic....
Sports and Entertainment Complex, which holds a variety of athletic spaces. Chelsea Piers sports a batting cage, bowling lanes, playing fields, a driving range, an ice skating rink, rock climbing facilities, and gymnastics space, among other exercise and fitness related spaces. Along with these indoor recreational facilities, Chelsea Piers offers boating activities and several restaurants on premises.
In keeping with the maritime heritage of the park, Hudson River Park has opportunities for outrigger canoeing on Pier 66 at West 26th Street, rowing and sailing on Piers 40 and 66, and free kayaking
Kayaking
Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving across water. Kayaking and canoeing are also known as paddling. Kayaking is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle...
on Piers 96, 66, and 40.
Abundant open grassy areas in the park permit non-athletic leisure activity. Sun tanning is a popular pastime in many areas. Clinton Cove (W. 55th St.), Pier 84 (W. 44th St.), 14th Street Park, and Pier 45 all present wide unobstructed green spaces for sunbathing, and are popular locations.
External links
- Official site
- Friends of Hudson River Park
- River Flicks movies (YouTube clip)
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