Located on the southernmost portion of the Brooklyn Bridge Park where Atlantic Avenue and the BQE meets, this hidden playground offers some unique experiences.
The playground is divided into sections. The first one is filled with slides and those weird climbing rope balls. The slides are particularly long. Two are built into the side of the artificial hill, and the third is in a wooden structure the kids can climb up in. Careful though, there was a squirrel nesting in the wooden structure.
The slides were quite a bit of fun, longer than the sort that are attached to climbing equipment and accessed through concrete stairs and a ramp that wends around the far side of the artificial hill.
The next area has an odd mix of climbing structures, but they aren't traditional metal construction with platforms. Instead, there are a few playhouses on stilts, a wooden train similar to the sad little train in Marsha P Johnson State Park in Williamsburg, and concrete animals.
There is also an odd looking metal thing that my toddler found entertaining but I have no idea how it was supposed to be used. A water table was also available, but again, there was no water.
There is also a water park section that happened to be closed since we were there in April, but it this has a long cascading waterfall and some objet d'art to create a splash effect.
Overall this playground is well hidden. Bamboo lines the edges, and even in the early spring the world around was well hidden. Unfortunately, the drone of the one-percent's helicopters departing from the lower Manhattan teleport was nonstop. How can all those people afford a helicopter ride? In this economy? With climate change? The sound was constant, second only to the noise of the BQE. Wasn't that supposed be shut down? Overall these are criticisms of the entire park strip and not just this particular playground. Once again, parks are given marginalized spaces overwhelmed by private vehicles.
The first two sections of the playground have sandy ground, so expect to have shoes filled with sand when you get home. But it's also like one big sandbox.
The access is fairly well restricted, and even if your tots get away, the playground is in a park, making it relatively safe if they escape.
We were here on the best of all school holidays, the ones that the NYC Schools decided was worth not having class even while the rest of the world went to work, and that meant it wasn't especially busy, but I would wager this place is quite crowded on a summer weekend. It seems situated to pickup the most day trippers and tourists on this end of the park.
There is a swing section of this park hidden on the other side of the path that includes "Tarzan"-style rope swings and traditional swings. Since it was entirely separate, and our toddler gets motion sick, we did not ride the swings.
The southern most playground in the Brooklyn Bridge Park complex, Pier 6 was the last development site in the project. The playground area opened in 2010, although the rest of the pier work began in 2016.
