North along the industrial East River waterfront that Brooklyn turned into parks, from the Domino sugar refinery to a 19th-century rail-freight yard, then inland to the 1936 McCarren pool and the Polish bakeries, churches and Victorian row houses of Greenpoint, ending on the pier where WNYC's radio towers once stood.
Best time: Saturday from late morning (Smorgasburg runs Saturdays 11am-6pm in season at Marsha P. Johnson State Park); finish at Transmitter Park for sunset over Midtown
The route, stop by stop
- 1Domino Park
5-acre park opened 2018 on the site of the Domino Sugar Refinery, designed by James Corner Field Operations (the High Line team). Walk the quarter-mile waterfront: salvaged refinery equipment, including the syrup collection tanks, and old crane tracks now planted with about a hundred plant species, with the Williamsburg Bridge alongside. 25 min.
- 2Marsha P. Johnson State Park
Kent Ave at North 7th-9th Sts. 11 acres on the site of the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, a rail-freight yard that opened as Palmer's Dock in 1870. Opened in 2007 as East River State Park and renamed in 2020, the first New York state park named after an LGBTQ person. Smorgasburg food market here on Saturdays in season. 30 min.
- 3McCarren Park and Pool
36 acres on the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border. Aymar Embury II's WPA pool opened 31 July 1936, closed after 1983 and reopened on 28 June 2012 after a USD 50 million restoration; the bathhouse is a 2007 city landmark. Watch the local mix: kickball leagues, Latino soccer games and Hasidic baseball at weekends. 20 min.
- 4Manhattan Avenue, Little Poland
From Nassau Ave (G train) walk north up Manhattan Ave, the spine of Greenpoint, long the second-largest Polish community in the US after Chicago: Polish bakeries, butchers and delis. Buy something from a Polish bakery. 25 min.
- 5St. Anthony of Padua Church
862 Manhattan Ave, at the head of Milton St, built in 1875. Look back up Milton St from the church steps. 10 min.
- 6Greenpoint Historic District (Milton Street)
Kent, Calyer, Noble and Franklin Sts, Clifford Pl and Manhattan Ave: 363 Italianate and late-Victorian houses and shops built 1850-1900, plus six churches (National Register 1983). Walk Milton St west towards the river, then Kent or Noble St. 20 min.
- 7WNYC Transmitter Park
Where Greenpoint Ave meets the river: the old Greenpoint ferry landing, then WNYC's AM transmitter site (1937-1990) with two 304-foot towers. 6.61-acre park opened September 2012; the old transmitter house survives, with a FAILE mural, and a recreational pier over the river at Kent St looks across to Manhattan. 20 min.
More walks in New York City
- Lower Manhattan: from the Battery to the Brooklyn Bridge
- Greenwich Village and the West Village: slices, jazz and side streets
- Lower East Side and Chinatown food walk
- Midtown icons: Grand Central to MoMA
- Museum Mile and Central Park's east side
- Jackson Heights and Elmhurst food crawl (Queens)
- Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn
- Harlem to Sugar Hill: Strivers' Row, Hamilton Grange and Edgecombe Avenue
- Brownstone Brooklyn: Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens
- Astoria: Little Egypt, a Czech beer garden, Hell Gate and Greek Ditmars