Hudson River Park is a waterfront park on the North River (Hudson River) that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park, a component of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, stretches and comprises , making it the second-largest park in Manhattan after the Central Park.
Hudson River Park is a joint state and city collaboration, but is organized as a New York State public-benefit corporation. Plans for the park were devised in the late 1980s following the cancellation of the Westway plan, which had proposed an interstate highway to replace the deteriorated West Side Elevated Highway. The park was established in 1998 and was built in several stages in conjunction with the construction of the surface-level West Side Highway. Additional phases were completed between the 2000s and the 2020s.
Hudson River Park connects many other recreational sites and landmarks. It runs through the Manhattan neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan (including Battery Park City, World Trade Center, and Tribeca), Greenwich Village (including the West Village and Meatpacking District), Chelsea, and Midtown West (which includes Hudson Yards and Hell's Kitchen/Clinton). The park connects two other waterfront parks: Riverside Park to the north and The Battery to the south.
Bicycle and pedestrian paths, spanning the park north to south, open up the waterfront for recreational use. The park includes tennis and soccer fields, batting cages, children's playground, dog run, and many other features. The parkland also incorporates several rebuilt North River piers along its length, formerly used for shipping.
Management
The Hudson River Park Trust is a partnership between New York State and New York City charged with the design, construction and operation of the four-mile Hudson River Park. The trust operates on a premise of financial self-sufficiency, supporting the staff as well as the operations and maintenance of the park through revenue generated within the park by rents from commercial tenants, fees, concession revenues, grants and donations. Capital funding has historically come primarily from the state, the city, and Federal budget appropriations. The trust is guided by a thirteen-member Board of Directors. There is also a fifty-member Advisory Council which plays an integral role in the park planning process. The management team is headed by Noreen Doyle, President and CEO. In 2017, the trust had operating expenses of $31.38 million and a level of staffing of 117 people.
History
Land use
Prior to colonization of New Netherland, Native Americans lived on the shore of the southernmost portion of the Hudson River—where the park now is—seasonally, in a place called Sapohanikan. It was near the present-day intersection of Gansevoort Street and Washington Street. It was probably a hunting and fishing site, and Native Americans probably used the oyster reefs on the shore as well; the newly settled Europeans also began using these reefs.
Later, oyster barges, selling high volumes of oysters, opened along the Hudson River shore, within several North River piers. Because of their quantity, they were often sold at cheap prices, and many immigrants to New York City relied on eating oysters. These oyster barges closed when the oysters died due to overfarming and to water pollution resulting from the shore's industrialization.
In 1807, the first steamboat in passenger operation, Clermont, was launched from present-day Pier 45, in the West Village. The first successful boat of its kind in the United States, it helped give Robert Fulton control over all steamboat operations on the rest of the Hudson River. The English White Star Line, including the Olympic, and the Titanic, had a terminal at Pier 59. The competing Cunard Line was located at Pier 54, and this location received survivors of the sinking of the Titanic rescued by the Carpathia in 1912, as well as being the departure point for the ill-fated Lusitania, which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915.
By the late 19th century, the Slaughterhouse District was created along the Hudson River shoreline in present-day Hell's Kitchen. A stretch of 39th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues was called Abattoir Place until the early 20th century. In the 1870s, tunnels to herd cattle under 12th Avenue were created at 34th and 38th Streets. The cattle industry in this area continued through the 1960s.