The Green-Wood to Red Hook route ran two weeks ago. Today we’re heading to the other end of Brooklyn — north, along the waterfront, through two neighborhoods that have changed dramatically over the past decade and still have pockets that feel like a different city entirely. This is a Greenpoint-to-Williamsburg walk that moves between the industrial waterfront, a surprisingly wild shoreline preserve, and some of the densest concentration of independent bookshops, bakeries, and studios in the borough.
Distance: roughly three miles end to end, easily broken into a morning and an afternoon. The whole route is flat, which is rarer in Brooklyn than you’d think.
The Route: Newtown Creek to the Williamsburg Bridge
Stop 1: Newtown Creek Nature Walk, Paidge Avenue and Provost Street, Greenpoint
Start at the north end of Greenpoint, at one of the most unexpectedly beautiful — and unsettling — spots in Brooklyn. The Newtown Creek Nature Walk is a 1,000-foot public waterfront pathway along a heavily industrialized tidal estuary that was once the most polluted waterway in the United States and is now in the middle of a decades-long EPA Superfund cleanup. The walk features native plantings, tidal viewing platforms, stainless steel interpretive panels, and views of the Manhattan skyline across the water. The juxtaposition of the industrial tanks and the carefully tended wildflower planting strips is genuinely striking. There’s also a large art installation visible from the walkway. Open dawn to dusk, free.
Stop 2: WNYC Transmitter Park, Greenpoint Avenue at the East River
Walk south along Greenpoint Avenue to the water, where a former WNYC radio transmitter site sat abandoned for decades before the city converted it into a small riverfront park in 2012. Transmitter Park is one of the best-kept secrets in north Brooklyn: a grassy waterfront lawn with direct views of the midtown Manhattan skyline, often uncrowded even on weekends, with a boat launch, picnic tables, and a restored shoreline. The name comes from the 220-foot radio tower that still stands on the site. On a clear May morning, this is one of the better spots in the borough for coffee and a view.
Stop 3: Greenpoint’s Manhattan Avenue Corridor
Head east on Greenpoint Avenue to Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint’s main commercial street, and walk south. The neighborhood is predominantly Polish-American — one of the largest Polish communities in the United States — and the commercial strip reflects it: Polish delis, pierogi shops, and bakeries operate alongside newer coffee shops and studios. The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm (44 Eagle Street), one of the first commercial rooftop farms in New York City, offers tours on select weekends — check their website before visiting. The McCarren Park Greenmarket runs Saturdays year-round at the park’s north entrance on Lorimer Street.
Stop 4: McCarren Park, 776 Lorimer Street
The 35-acre park straddles the Greenpoint-Williamsburg border and is one of the most socially layered parks in the borough — bocce courts, a running track, a large public pool (open June through Labor Day), and on Saturday mornings in spring, a farmers market and informal soccer games running simultaneously. The restored pool complex, which opened in 2012 after a long renovation, is a WPA-era structure that was originally built in 1936 and fits nearly 1,500 swimmers. If you’re here on a summer Saturday, it’s free to enter.
Stop 5: The Brooklyn Mikveh and the Bedford Avenue Mural Walk
South of McCarren, the neighborhood transitions into the core of Williamsburg’s Hasidic community east of Bedford Avenue, and the dense gallery-and-boutique corridor of Bedford Avenue west of it. The contrast is one of the defining features of the neighborhood and worth walking slowly through rather than cycling past. The murals along Bedford Avenue between North 7th and North 4th Streets change regularly — they’re commissioned through various arts organizations and reflect both the neighborhood’s Latinx history and its more recent artistic community. The Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (135 Broadway) is one of the older gallery spaces in the area and worth a look if it’s open.
Stop 6: Domino Park, 300 Kent Avenue
The route ends at Domino Park, the five-acre riverfront park built on the former Domino Sugar refinery site. The refinery operated from 1882 until 2004, and the park opened in 2018. What makes it worth the walk is the industrial archaeology: original refinery equipment — centrifugal sugar pan machines, iron columns, conveyors — has been preserved and integrated into the park design as sculptural elements you can walk through and around. On the northern end, the refinery building itself is now being converted to office space. The waterfront promenade here has some of the best eye-level views of the Manhattan skyline in the borough, and on weekends the park is lively but rarely as crowded as the Brooklyn Bridge Park piers.
Getting There and Around
Take the G train to Greenpoint Avenue to start at the Newtown Creek end. For the return, the L train at Bedford Avenue (after Domino Park) will take you back to Manhattan or connecting subway lines. The G train also runs the full length of the route. No car needed — and parking along the Williamsburg waterfront on weekends is difficult.
What You Need to Know
- Newtown Creek Nature Walk is open dawn to dusk, free, at the end of Paidge Avenue in Greenpoint.
- WNYC Transmitter Park is free, open year-round, on the East River at Greenpoint Avenue.
- McCarren Park Pool opens for the season in June — but the park itself and market are active now.
- Eagle Street Rooftop Farm tours run on select Saturdays — check rooftopfarms.org before going.
- Domino Park is free and open daily; the industrial installations are on the north lawn near the waterfront.
- Budget 3–4 hours for the full walk including stops; 90 minutes if you’re moving quickly.
- The G train is the workhorse here — runs the full length of the route.
For more on what’s opening in this corridor right now, see our Brooklyn Spring Openings roundup covering Greenpoint and Williamsburg. And if you want the planning and development context for the Kent Avenue waterfront, our Brooklyn Policy Watch on the 200 Kent Avenue rezoning has the details.
