Do you have Summer Fridays? Or you love getting into places before everyone else can? This Friday, we’ll be visiting The Hills, the new park on Governors Island on a tour led by the Governors Island Trust. Once open, The Hills will certainly be popular and crowded, and for good reason. There will be 40 lush acres of green space with four new hills up to 70 feet above sea level.
On this tour, you’ll learn about the Island’s history from military base to open green space and get an inside look at the recent and ongoing transformation of the barren landfill on the south island. You’ll get an unbelievable view of the New York harbor, lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty from the summit. We’ll hear about the engineering feat behind the construction of The Hills, which will include New York City’s longest slide, a granite “scramble” made of old blocks repurposed from the old island seawall, and the planting of nearly 3,000 new trees.
All guests must wear closed-toe shoes as this is an active construction site. The ferry is a quick 7 minute ride and after you dock you will meet your tour guide at the Welcome Wall, located just to the left of where you exit the boat on Governors Island. The group will walk to the Hills (roughly 10 minutes from the ferry landing). From the summit of Outlook Hill (70 feet above sea level), the guide will show the group all the unique and amazing features of all four Hills and share fun facts as well as some details of the Hills construction.
Tour length is 1.5 hours. Get tickets here:
If you can’t make Friday, join us this Saturday for our first Secrets of the Gowanus Canal tour, led by Gowanus enthusiast, Joseph Alexiou, author of Gowanus: Broolyn’s Curious Canal. On this tour, you’ll see sites and landmarks like the Coignet Stone Company Building, one of the first moulded concrete buildings in the United States, the former Batcave/BRT Powerhouse, the National Box Packing Factory, the Green Building, the 4th Street Basin and more.
See our full list of Behind the Scenes tours.
