Monday, September 17, 2007

Riverbank State Park


The biggest park you've never heard of.


There is a park on the westside of Manhattan on the waterfront that is built on top of a wastewater treatment plant. That's right they built a park right on top of a SEWAGE treatment plant...and its great.


City planners stole a great idea from rooftop parks that had been successfully designed in Japan and decided lets put one next to the westside highway. Its 28 acres, has an Olympic sized pool, tennis courts, ice-rink an 800 person performance amphitheatre on the Hudson river and everything else that parks should have. This one just happens to be on top of a sewage treatment plant...i don't know why, but i find that funny.


It's up about 70 feet above the water, and unless you were on the edge looking out over the river and the George Washington Bridge you'd never know where you were. It has real grass and planted trees with benches, flowers and nice places to generally enjoy yourself in peace.

For a city that loves it's parks, I'm a little surprised that more people haven't heard of Riverbank.

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