Alley Pond Park is more than 655 acres of trees, water marshes, meadows, hills, and trails. It occupies part of a terminal moraine that was formed by a glacier roughly 15,000 years ago, and features kettle ponds formed by melting ice and natural springs. Though located near the Long Island Expressway, in the spring, pollen…
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Astoria Park offers shoreline access to the East River, views of Manhattan and Randall’s Island, an outdoor pool, and multiple recreational activities, lying below two bridges, the Robert F. Kennedy (formerly Triborough) and Hell Gate. Located at the western end of Ditmars Boulevard and covering about 60 acres, the public space has running tracks, dog…
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Cunningham Park is about 360 acres in total, but it features a 240-acre wildlife preserve consisting of real forest habitat, vernal pools, and kettle ponds. The area has countless sports fields, tree-lined jogging paths, play areas, and barbecue pits. Named after W. Arthur Cunningham, a World War I veteran who was elected city comptroller in…
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Flushing Meadows Corona Park is the fourth biggest public space in New York City. With 898 acres it is 55 acres larger than Central Park in Manhattan, and it hosts a wonderful mix of flora, fauna, waterways, paths, athletic facilities, statutes and cultural organizations. Smack dab in the center is the borough’s most recognizable structure:…
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Thanks in large part to a glacier that passed through about 20,000 years ago, today’s Forest Park is a windy and hilly 538 acres with natural hiking and horse-riding paths through what is called “knob and kettle” terrain. Despite a few years of lumbering and a chestnut blight in 1912, the park is filled with…
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Fort Totten Park is actually a preserved Civil War fortress that became a working U.S. Army installation and now provides space for the United States Army Reserve. With over 60 acres, the area has large fields, dilapidated houses, an old officers’ club, a sports complex, and a public swimming pool. Patrons can take canoes into…
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Gantry Plaza State Park covers 12 acres of shoreline on the borough’s Western coast. With the East River and Midtown Manhattan to the immediate west, the park contains playing fields, fishing piers, a promenade, and outdoor furniture in a site that was once a dock facility with gantry cranes. A 120-foot-long and 60-foot-high neon Pepsi-Cola…
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Home to a restored art deco bathhouse, a pitch-and-putt golf course, ball courts, boardwalks and a mile-long stretch of swimmable ocean, Jacob Riis Park is one of New York City’s most popular beaches. Designed in 1936 by Robert Moses, the famous New York City urban planner who also designed Long Island’s Jones Beach, Jacob Riis…
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The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge — part of Gateway National Recreation Area — is the only wildlife refuge in the national park system The refuge’s 9,155 acres contain diverse habitats including salt marsh, upland field and woods, several fresh and brackish water ponds and an open expanse of bay available for exploration. At the Visitor…
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Juniper Valley Park stretches over more than 55 acres in the heavily residential Middle Village neighborhood. It offers space for baseball, basketball, bocce, football, handball, soccer, tennis, and track. It was long a swamp until Arnold Rothstein, the gangster known for fixing the 1919 World Series during the Black Sox Scandal, bought 88 acres for…
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