Marina, Paerdegat Basin, Brooklyn

RECREATION

The play pier is a kindergarten in the educational campaign against the gang. It gives the little ones a chance. Half the East Side swarmed over (the first recreation pier) with shrieks of delight, and carried the mayor and the city government, who had come to see the show, fairly off their feet.

--Jacob A. Riis, 1900

The first play pier, opened at the foot of East 3rd Street in 1897, was such a success it was soon followed by five others--at East 24th Street and East 112th Street on the East River, in the Greenwich Village area, at West 50th Street and at West 129th Street on the Hudson. The public was welcome from June until November from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

The City still has a play pier, although it is not called that, in

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