Pier 76

Pier 76 is a public pier park in Hudson River Park at West 36th Street in Midtown West. The pier was long occupied by a New York City Police Department tow pound, where illegally parked vehicles from across the city were stored. The tow pound's removal in 2021 opened one of the last major undeveloped waterfront sites in Hudson River Park.

The liberation of Pier 76 from its decades-long use as a car storage facility was a significant victory for park advocates who had long argued that prime waterfront land should not be devoted to storing towed vehicles. The tow pound was relocated to make way for public access to the river.

The pier's initial opening provided a simple but dramatic amenity: open space on the Hudson River in a part of Midtown that had no public waterfront access. The Javits Convention Center and Hudson Yards development lie directly inland, generating enormous foot traffic that benefits from the new waterfront connection.

Plans for the pier's full build-out include landscaping, recreational facilities, and connections to the broader Hudson River Park esplanade. Even in its initial simplified form, the pier has been enthusiastically received by a Midtown workforce and residential community hungry for waterfront space.

Pier 76 represents the final chapter of Manhattan's west side waterfront transformation: the last major pier to be reclaimed from non-park use, completing the vision of a continuous public waterfront from the Battery to Midtown that was authorized in 1998.