Tour reveals progress of Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Bridge Park is really coming along. On my last tour, in early December 2011, the stretch between the then largely completed Pier 1 section and the partly completed Pier 6 section was mostly clear except for the ‘spiral pool’ at Pier 2 and a temporary nursery behind Pier 3 for sapling tress yet to be planted, plus some rocks awaiting disposition.
This time, much activity was happening on and beside Pier 5 and on Pier 2, and between Piers 1 and 2 a small pool was already full of swimmers, while a hill was being shaped for the park terminus of a footbridge from Columbia Heights through Squibb Playground. “The city just gave us $21 million to complete Pier 6,” was the cheery greeting of Teresa Gonzalez, the assistant to park president Regina Myer, when I arrived at 334 Furman Street for the tour. As we were joined by Ms. Myer, I remarked on the busy sounds coming from the park: “By 7 a.m. I hear rumbling rocks.”
Regina Myer smiled. “They’re doing some re-rumbling,” she said.” Some of the rocks were rumbled into the wrong places originally.”
Allowing for that small glitch, the affable and relaxed woman in charge of this momentous construction job was clearly enthusiastic about the progress being made. She was especially eager to show me the work at Pier 5, on whose 5 acres three synthetic-turf playing fields are about to be created, and next to which a ‘picnic peninsula’ is nearing completion. A transparent wall will surround the playing fields as protection from the wind.