Things to do and see at Hudson River Park piers 

Do you want to cheer on a game of kayak polo or get free outdoor salsa lessons with hundreds of others? How about watching the sunset atop a floating garden or dining in a historic Coast Guard ship?

Hudson River Park is a pick-your-vibe place, a 4-mile sliver off the concrete jungle of Manhattan’s West End.

Noreen Doyle, president and chief executive of Hudson River Park Trust, sees the park fulfilling the human "need" for both green and blue: “It’s the urban version of forest bathing."

Its 550 acres, established under a 1998 state law, reflects a private-public partnership to create an estuarine sanctuary and boost recreational access to the Hudson. Where sanitation depots, slaughterhouses and crumbling factories once reigned, more than 24 piers have been rebuilt and re-imagined over the past two decades: a human-made beach, free concert venues, boathouses, an old train bridge, five dog parks, the Intrepid battleship museum, and education sites, including an aquarium of river denizens, with Hudson River water piped into their tanks.

This waterfront destination has been charged under the law with a task: restore and manage 400 acres of the New York Harbor for oysters and other life that were once bountiful. This summer, park officials hailed the first sighting of a fiddler crab, a sign of healthier waters.

"It’s a chain of piers that make up an absolute jewel of a park," says Laurie Silberfeld, of Point Lookout, former general counsel for the park’s trust foundation. "You can have a real tactile experience with the environs and the river. You come away richer for having learned a little along the way while having a good time."

STARS OF THE PARK

Sampling the piers, between West 59th Street and Harrison Street in Greenwich Village, takes at least a weekend. A wide esplanade divides the piers and its activities from the street side features, mostly lawns, gardens and cafe-like seating under trees. Programs abound, along with ballparks, pickleball courts, mini-golf and a skate park.

If time is short, start with a caffeine shot to the eyes — 132 gargantuan, concrete "pots," tulip-shaped structures that tower as high as 66 feet above the water at Pier 55, across from 14th Street. 

Called Little Island, this $260 million floating garden nurtures about 400 species of trees, plants and lawns sprouting atop the pots. Paths and staircases wind up, down and around, with each pot giving a different view of the city and the river. A 700-foot amphitheater, which looks out to New Jersey, hosts free concerts and plays, while a grassy hill sets the mood for intimate jazz gatherings.

One pier down, the sands of Gansevoort Peninsula may still tempt Long Islanders spoiled by ocean beaches. Visitors dip their feet into the Hudson River or doze in Adirondack chairs as geese putt around and workers in suits or construction hats stroll feet away.

For those with children, the playgrounds are fanciful. At Pier 26, near North Moore Street, kids frolic in the bellies of two Godzilla-sized sturgeons, then slide down and out.

At the ends of long piers, where the city soundtrack of honking and hammering can no longer be heard, sitting under tree groves encourages deep thoughts.

The riverfront is still a work in progress. Under construction are a film studio at Pier 94 and a massive slide to a sunset platform, fields and water sprays at Pier 97. A task force has been discussing revenue-generating ideas for Pier 76, the park’s largest at 245,000 square feet, once the city’s tow pound and now the stage for salsa dancing and festivals.

FREE ART EDUCATION AND FUN AT SEA

In the city’s most expensive borough, prepare for a price shock — free.

Lessons on paddling, rowing, kayaking and outrigger canoes cost nothing at boathouses on piers 26, 40, 66 and 96.

Science education can be high-tech or live. The river’s fenced-in grass marks salt marsh habitats being grown. The Wetlab at Pier 40 showcases fish, eels, turtles and other creatures in large tanks and pools, caught from the Hudson River and released as winter approaches. Pier 57’s tech-powered Discovery Tank classroom invites the curious to design their plankton. At Pier 26, Big City Fishing offers catch-and-release fishing and fish education.

In keeping with a city of museums, quirky artwork dot the park, some on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, across from Gansevoort. Peer through portholes of a bus-sized, green bottle, called Private Passage, and one can see a ship’s cabin with all-metal furnishings and appliances. For those eager to sit in the Big Apple, the Pier 46 garden gives space to a 3-ton bronze version, the hollow center a favorite selfie spot.

A STROLL THROUGH HISTORY 

For centuries, society devalued this Hudson waterfront land while reaping nature’s riches from the Hudson River.

That’s how slaughterhouses and meatpacking warehouses, lamp oil and turpentine factories and warehouses came to roost along Manhattan’s Hudson River in the 1800s.

In modern times, many abandoned buildings deteriorated, and the area became home to nightclubs, crime and prostitution rings. It was also an area where many in the LGBTQ+ community hung out.

Then in the 1990s, the neighborhoods started becoming hip as the city preserved landmark buildings and private and public investments poured in, leading to gentrification, high-fashion boutiques, restaurants and the High Line park over old rail tracks.

Hudson River Park circles back to this history. For example, a restored "float transfer bridge," at Pier 66a, once carried train cars from river barge to waterfront train tracks. Hand-carved creatures at the Pier 62 carousel reflect the animals that once roamed the Hudson River Valley in big numbers, from sea horses to bears.

At a pier where LGBTQ+  once hung out, Little Island hosts Teen Night events every Friday to welcome LGBTQ+, at-risk and other youths.

As the floating park’s director of engagement, Michael Wiggins revels in how Little Island illustrates the park’s full circle theme: "There’s something so magical about how it has been unspooling. It is an intentional home for children, for children who are on the margins, for gay teenagers, for pollinators, for birds that need a place to land. It is a place of joy."

ENDING THE ADVENTURE WITH A SUNSET VIEW 

The park excels at revealing other perspectives — one notices the Hudson Yards skyscrapers cocooning its celebrated Vessel, a 16-story, honeycomb-like structure.

But it’s at sunset when the city starts to look and feel its best at Hudson River Park, visitors say.

From several vantage points — Pier 57’s rooftop, Little Island’s amphitheater, wide stretches of the esplanade — people gaze in silence at colorful clouds and the orange orb setting behind New Jersey’s skyscrapers. Manhattan’s glass and steel towers gleam yellow, orange, blue and other colors as they reflect dimming natural light, then the night’s artificial illumination.

College student Nathan Heo had felt tired after flying from Georgia for a visit and anxious being in a crowded, big city, but as he experienced nightfall in the park, the river’s lull gave him a sense of safety in a suburb.

"Coming to a place like this, it feels removed from the rest of the city," Heo says. "This gives you energy that sleep can’t."