West Harlem Piers Taking Shape

South Pier

North Pier

The West Harlem Piers project looks like it is moving rapidly toward completion later this year.  One pier will serve as a dock while the other will be more recreation oriented.  You can't see it from this angle, but the street in front of Fairway has been reconfigured and repaved, and the old Fairway parking lot is also being turned into a recreation area.  Once the park is finished bike riders will no longer have to do that weird jog off the bike path, onto 12th Ave under the viaduct, and back onto the bike path by the sewage treatment plant.

In many ways the piers will return the area to a former use.  Manhattanville had piers long ago.  Commuters would take the ferry across the river from New Jersey, tourists and people living downtown would take ferries here, visit Grant's Tomb and have a meal at the Claremont Inn. 

The Hudson shoreline here in Manhattanville once had one of the only natural beaches on Manhattan and is believed to be where Henry Hudson's Half Moon made landfall in 1609.  The 400th anniversary of that landing is only two years away.  I wonder if there will be any commemorative events?

Comments

[Berry]

Great post!

[Joe]

Thanks!