TheManhattan Waterfront Greenway is a waterfrontgreenway forwalking orcycling, 32 miles (51 km) long, around the island ofManhattan, inNew York City. The largest portions are operated by theNew York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It is separated from motor traffic, and many sections also separatepedestrians from cyclists. There are three principal parts — the East, Harlem and Hudson River Greenways.
The non-profit organizationShorewalkers NYC, launched in 1982, works to promote and preserve the Manhattan waterfront. It organizes every yearThe Great Saunter, a 32-mile hike around Manhattan close to the waterline.[1]
The Hudson River Greenway is the longest greenway in Manhattan, running along theWest Side, fromBattery Park in the south – mostly throughHudson River Park,Riverside Park, andFort Washington Park – toDyckman Street in the north.
A gap in WestHarlem was filled in early October 2008 with the opening of theHarlem Piers bike lane. A roughly 10-block detour in the west 80s, where a walkway had crumbled into the river in the late 20th century,[2] was eliminated on May 20, 2010, when the rebuilt section of greenway was opened.[3]
The Hudson River Greenway is the most heavily usedbikeway in the United States.[4] The majority of it is close toHudson River water level, except the portion north ofGeorge Washington Bridge where it climbs steeply, to approximately 160 feet (49 m) and includesInspiration Point, with views ofThe Palisades inNew Jersey across the river and of theGeorge Washington Bridge to the south. The Hudson River Greenway is part of theEast Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) trail system connecting Maine to Florida, and is also part of the statewideEmpire State Trail, forming its southernmost portion.
At the downtown end, the Battery Bikeway connects the Hudson and East River Greenways via the Battery andPeter Minuit Plaza.[5] It opened in 2015 after renovation work on theSouth Ferry/Whitehall Street station.[6] The connection is a biker crossingright of way across Battery Place to the foot of the Hudson River Greenway.[5] At the Battery's southeast end, the bikeway continues as theEast River Greenway, which runs next toFDR Drive.[7]
Travelers toBrooklyn use a bike lane in Warren Street and a one-way bike path (opened in September 2008) through the north end ofCity Hall Park to connect to theBrooklyn Bridge. Those arriving from Brooklyn use lanes inPark Row and Murray Street to reach the Greenway.[7]
Mixed-use paths continue a mile north from Dyckman Street intoInwood Hill Park alongside the western ball fields, at which point the path crosses the Amtrak rail tracks using a bridge with steps. This continues northeast into the park as part of the park trail system and connects north to bikeways inSpuyten Duyvil in the Bronx via theHenry Hudson Bridge, and east to the bike lane on 218th Street leading to theBroadway Bridge.[7]
The Harbor Ring is an initiative to create a 50-mile (80 km) bike route along theLower Hudson River,Upper New York Bay, andKill van Kull that would incorporate bike paths along the Greenway.[8][9][10]
A portion of the Greenway between west 72nd and 83rd Streets is devoted to just pedestrians and the bike path was redirected onto other paths, including part of the roundabout above the79th Street Boat Basin.
Anattack on the Greenway on October 31, 2017, killed six tourists and two local people; the perpetrator was an Uzbek-American and he used a Home Depot truck in the attacks.
The East River Greenway runs along the East Side, fromBattery Park and pastSouth Street Seaport to a dead end at 125th Street,East Harlem with a 0.6-mile (0.97 km) gap from 41st to53rd streets inMidtown where pedestrians and cyclists use busyFirst andSecond Avenues to get aroundUnited Nations Headquarters between theTurtle Bay andKips Bay portions of the Greenway.[11]
Some places are narrow due to sinkholes being blocked off by protective fencing, and theCaptain Patrick J. Brown Walk squeezes between the highway and the dock ofCon Edison'sEast River Generating Station, requiring slower speeds. Other parts are shared space with motor access toWaterside Plaza (atStuyvesant Cove Park), or a filling station. Approximately a mile near the southwest end is in the shadow of the elevatedFDR Drive. This part is to be improved by theEast River Esplanade project.
In the summer of 2008 the East River Greenway, along with theBrooklyn Heights Promenade, provided viewing locations to see theNew York City Waterfalls.
In August 2024, theNew York City Economic Development Corporation announced plans to complete the segment of the greenway between 41st and 53rd streets; the extension would cost $120 million and open in 2028.[11]
Partially following the route of the oldHarlem River Speedway, the Harlem River Greenway is the shortest portion of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway and is completely uninterrupted, running north through lower Highbridge Park from155th Street, at the north end of Harlem, to Dyckman Street in northern Manhattan. It lies between theHarlem River andHarlem River Drive.[12] Users of the East River Greenway must use ordinary streets throughEast Harlem to reach this portion. A bike lane inDyckman Street throughInwood connects toInwood Hill Park and the Hudson River Greenway via a 2015 bike ramp at the western end of Dyckman Street.[13][14]
A second, shorter Harlem River Greenway is inHarlem River Park, running from about 133rd Street in the south to 145th Street in the north. Access to the greenway is via walkways at 135th, 139th, and 142nd streets. The city has proposed to extend Harlem River Park south to 125th Street, where the greenway could connect to the East River Greenway;[15] also to extend Harlem River Greenway north, into the Bronx.[16]
There are plans for a storm barrier along the southern third of the greenway, from West 57th St. down to the Battery, and back up to East 42nd St.[17][18][19] As of April 2021[update], parts of this plan have been implemented along theEast River Greenway.
The final proposal, which is geographically U-shaped, will include many features.[17] Under the elevatedFDR Drive structure aboveSouth Street will be storm barriers hanging from the viaduct's ceiling, which will drop down in case of a storm.[17] A "Battery Berm" will be located atBattery Park, and a maritime museum will be opened on the site of a former Coast Guard building there.[17] The proposal, by Rebuild by Design, will also include components for storm barriers inHunts Point, Bronx and onStaten Island.[19]
The first component, a 2.19-mile-long (4 km) barrier on theLower East Side between Montgomery and East 13th Streets called "The Bridging Berm", will cost $335 million.[20] In addition to storm protection, the berm—the first of three of the barrier's components—will also provide a pedestrian pathway and bikeway on top of berm, boating and fishing docks, a slope down to current sports fields, upgradedADA-accessible ramps for bridges across the FDR Drive, and construction materials such as "slurry walls, concrete blocks, a compacted embankment, a clay cap, topsoil andsalt-tolerant landscaping."[20] The berm bikeway will make a second connection between the Hudson and East River Greenways (the first being the Battery Bikeway).[21][22] The total cost of the project is over $3.5 billion.[23]
In March 2019, then New York City mayorBill de Blasio announced a Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency Plan, which would create barriers and possibly extend the shoreline at a cost of $10 billion.[24][25] At the time, four of the project's phases had funding and were set to start construction between 2020 and 2021. The projects include berms as well as retractable dams and barriers in Battery Park City, the Financial District, andTwo Bridges.[26] In 2019, the city installed a temporary barrier while the permanent barrier is being erected.[27]
Notes
The Hudson River Greenway is the most heavily used bike path in the United States, it is a 24-hour, 365 day a year route.
East River Greenway:
40°47′17″N73°59′01″W / 40.788°N 73.9836°W /40.788; -73.9836
