Development Strategy

Brooklyn Bridge Park will be an 80-acre, world-class waterfront park, stretching 1.3 miles from Atlantic Avenue to Jay Street, north of the Manhattan Bridge. The park will reconnect the citizens of Brooklyn to their waterfront. It will replace abandoned piers, parking lots and storage sheds and become a great public space in New York Harbor.

The entrances to the Park are defined by three urban junctions, located (moving north to south) in DUMBO, at Fulton Ferry Landing and at Atlantic Avenue. Because of the walking distance to the Park from most of the surrounding residential areas, the park is designed so that at each of these entrances the park visitor is provided with a full experience nearby, so they do not have to walk a long distance to find things like playgrounds and dog runs. Each of the three major entrances will have a playground for families to enjoy.

The Park will offer the public unparalleled access to water, making innovative use of boardwalks, floating bridges and canals that wind throughout the water’s edge. It will also contain rolling hills, marshland, as well as abundant recreational opportunities with multi-purpose playing fields, playgrounds, shaded ball courts, open lawns and 10 acres of safe paddling waters. There will be pockets of natural landscape re-created on some of the parkland to attract birds and other wildlife.

By increasing the water’s edge from 2.4 miles to 4 miles the park’s pathways provide optimal connections to both the water and the full range of Park experiences. Wave attenuators in the plan will reduce a 3-foot wave to about 6 inches, and serve a dual purpose as water-level boardwalks which users will be able to traverse as they walk through the park, right down at water level. The wave attenuators also create a “safe water zone”. The safe water zone and its associated marine engineered elements adds to the circulation of the park. More choices for walking on many different paths makes the park more fun to visit over and over again, and that is an element that defines a great park. For example, the wave attenuator between Piers 1 and 2 provides a bridge along the pier head line between the piers and offers an alternative route for park users to walk along the park’s main promenade.

The safe water zone makes 10 acres of water available for additional active use. The safe water zone will be used by various non-motorized boats, including kayaks and row boats.

A variety of activities and spaces that will attract people to move throughout the entire park landscape are provided in the middle of the park, including:

• Active recreation (sport courts on Piers 2 and 3 and soccer fields on Pier 5)
• Water recreation
• The opportunity to get down to the water’s edge
• Bicycle path/ Brooklyn Greenway
• Civic lawns
• Marina


Finally, the park offers several lawn spaces for other active recreation – Frisbee playing, bicycling, running, and walking, for example.

The proposed topography will provide protected pockets, creating shelter from the high wind conditions that exist at the site, and will make the park ideal for cross country skiing. Considering that New York City receives large amounts of bright sunshine, with typically four-to-five hours daily in the winter and nearly double that in the summer, the landscape will be used year-round. People walk, jog, play soccer and people-watch year-round.

The Park paths and security roads that will only be drivable in summer by the park police may be opened up in winter so sports enthusiasts can drive to use these facilities in the winter. Further, portions of the existing pier sheds will remain on Piers 2 and 3 and will provide shelter from the wind and rain. Also, if funds can be raised there is the potential for enclosing a portion of Pier 5 with an indoor athletic facility/event space.