Ferry Point Park

Ferry Point Park — Throggs Neck’s big waterfront, rebuilt from the ground up

This is the borough’s great experiment in second chances. Ferry Point Park occupies more than four hundred acres of peninsula pushing out into the East River at Throggs Neck, and for a long stretch of the twentieth century half of it was a garbage dump. Today that half carries a links-style golf course, a community ballfield park and a waterfront walkway with a restored saltwater marsh at its edge — while the older western half, laid out under Robert Moses and built by New Deal work crews, still has the wide lawns and shoreline overlook that opened here in 1940. The signature experience is simply standing at the water with the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge filling the sky: the towers rise directly off the park’s shoreline, ships pass, planes bank toward the airport across the water, and the Manhattan skyline sits low and silver on the horizon. Around a mile and a half of shorefront makes this one of the longest stretches of publicly accessible waterfront anywhere in the Bronx.

Highlights

• Bronx–Whitestone Bridge views — the suspension towers stand immediately off the park, and the shoreline path frames them from a dozen angles; the Throgs Neck Bridge and Long Island Sound open up to the east.
• The waterfront promenade — a walkway along the East River completed in 2020 together with a restored saltwater marsh, turning raw fill edge into usable shoreline.
• Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point — an eighteen-hole links-style course laid out on the regraded former landfill, a Jack Nicklaus design that opened in 2015; it is a public course, open to anyone who books a tee time.
• The community park — roughly nine and a half acres opened in 2012 with a junior baseball field, basketball courts, a children’s play area and a pedestrian trail.
• The shared pedestrian and cycling path — close to a mile of paved trail running through the park with water and bridge views most of the way.
• The New Deal-era west side — the older, quieter half with mature plantings, ballfields, picnic ground and the original overlook above the water.

What you’ll find

The park reads as two distinct places joined by the same shoreline. The west side is a traditional 1940s park of lawns, trees and playing fields; the east side is a twenty-first-century landscape built on remediated ground, with the golf course occupying the bulk of it and public recreation wrapped around the perimeter.

• An eighteen-hole public golf course with a large clubhouse, driving range and practice areas.
• Baseball and softball diamonds, soccer and multi-purpose fields on both sides of the park.
• Basketball courts, a children’s playground and a play area in the community park section.
• A waterfront promenade and shoreline overlook with benches facing the East River.
• A restored saltwater marsh and planted coastal edge along part of the shore.
• Picnic areas, comfort stations, and a mile-long shared path for walking and cycling.

Things to do — and who it’s for

• Photographers and skyline hunters — few places in the city put a great suspension bridge this close, with clean sightlines and open sky.
• Golfers — a Nicklaus-designed links course on public land, bookable by any member of the public, with water on the horizon from most of the holes.
• Cyclists and runners — the shared path plus the shoreline walk gives a flat, uninterrupted circuit with a constant view.
• Families and youth leagues — the community park’s ballfield, courts and play area are built for weekend team play and small children in the same visit.
• Birdwatchers and nature-minded visitors — the restored marsh and planted shoreline draw shorebirds, waders and passing migrants in season.
• Anglers and shore-watchers — the long waterfront edge is a classic Bronx spot for watching the tide, the shipping and the light change over the Sound.

Getting there & practical

Ferry Point Park lies in Throggs Neck, in the eastern Bronx, split into east and west halves by the expressway approach to the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge. By subway, the 6 train runs out to Westchester Square–East Tremont Avenue, from where local buses cover the remaining distance; several Bronx routes serve the neighborhood, and the Q50 crosses the bridge from Queens and stops nearby. Entry to the park is free — the lawns, fields, courts, playground, promenade and trails cost nothing to use. The golf course is a separate commercial operation with its own booking system, dress code and greens fees, and tee times are reserved in advance rather than walked up to. The park keeps the standard long city-park hours, from early morning until late at night, though the waterfront is best in daylight; the golf course and clubhouse run on their own seasonal schedule. Give yourself ninety minutes for a shoreline walk and a look at the bridge, half a day if you are combining the promenade with fields, playground or a picnic. Note that construction associated with the approved casino project is under way in part of the east side, so signage and some routes may change.

When to visit

Spring brings the marsh back to life and the ballfields into use; the light is soft, the crowds are thin, and migrating birds work the shoreline. Summer is the park’s busiest and most social season — league games, family barbecues, the promenade full in the evening, and the cooling breeze off the water that makes this corner of the Bronx noticeably more bearable than the inland streets on a hot day. Autumn is arguably the best time here: the humidity drops, visibility across the water sharpens so the Manhattan skyline reads crisply on the horizon, and the golf course is at its most playable. Winter is stark and often windy — this is exposed, open shoreline with little shelter — but it rewards anyone who bundles up with the clearest views of the year, ice at the marsh edge and a bridge silhouette that photographs beautifully in low winter sun.

Good to know

The city took the original parcel of roughly 171 acres into the parks system in 1937, buying it from the Roman Catholic House of the Good Shepherd in the same proceedings that assembled land for the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge. The park was planned under Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and built by Works Progress Administration crews: the landscaped western section opened to the public in 1940, and a Parks Department announcement of August 11, 1941 described the finished work — an overlook above the water, a combined comfort station and storage building, two baseball diamonds, picnic grounds and extensive tree planting. A further 243 acres were added in 1948, bringing the park to its present size of about 413.8 acres. Then came the long detour: from 1952 until 1970 the Department of Sanitation ran a landfill on the east side, and the cove that once cut into the shoreline was filled in entirely. Reclaiming that ground took decades. The regraded landfill became an eighteen-hole links-style golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus with John Sanford, which opened in 2015; the adjoining nine-and-a-half-acre community park had opened in 2012, and a waterfront walkway with a restored saltwater marsh was completed in 2020. The golf course has changed hands: it was operated under a twenty-year concession by the Trump Organization from 2015, the de Blasio administration moved in January 2021 to end the city’s contracts with that company, and the lease was sold to Bally’s Corporation in September 2023, after which the course was renamed Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point. It remains a public course. In 2025 the same company pursued a downstate gaming licence for a casino and hotel complex beside the course: its Community Advisory Committee voted five to one in favour on September 29, 2025, and the state granted the licence on December 15, 2025, a decision that reallocates roughly sixteen acres of the park’s four-hundred-plus. As for the name, NYC Parks traces it to the ferries that once crossed between the Bronx and Queens — from Westchester Village to Whitestone, and from Clason Point to College Point; other accounts tie it to the Ferris family, eighteenth-century landholders on Throggs Neck.

Visitor tips

• Walk the shoreline path toward the bridge rather than away from it — the towers grow as you go, and the last few hundred metres give the view that people come here for.
• Dress for wind. The peninsula is exposed on three sides and the waterfront runs several degrees cooler and much breezier than the streets behind it.
• If golf is the plan, book the tee time in advance and check the current course status; sections of the layout have been affected by construction on the east side.

Questions & answers

How big is Ferry Point Park? About 413.8 acres, spread over a peninsula in Throggs Neck with roughly a mile and a half of waterfront — one of the largest parks in the Bronx and one of its longest publicly accessible shorelines.

Is the golf course open to the public? Yes. Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point is a public course on city parkland: anyone can reserve a tee time, subject to the operator’s booking window, greens fees and dress code. It is not a private members’ club.

Who runs the golf course now? Bally’s Corporation, which bought the remaining term of the twenty-year concession in September 2023 and renamed the course. It was previously operated by the Trump Organization from the 2015 opening.

Was the park really built on a landfill? Part of it. The east side served as a Department of Sanitation landfill between 1952 and 1970. That ground was capped and regraded, and the golf course, community park and waterfront walkway were built on top of the reclaimed land.

What can you see from the shoreline? The Bronx–Whitestone Bridge at very close range, the Throgs Neck Bridge and the entrance to Long Island Sound to the east, the Manhattan skyline low on the western horizon, and constant boat and aircraft traffic over the East River.

Do I need a car? No, though it helps. The 6 train reaches Westchester Square–East Tremont Avenue and local buses continue from there; the Q50 crosses the bridge from Queens. There is also parking near the golf clubhouse and the community park.

Is there anything for children? Yes — the community park section opened in 2012 with a junior baseball field, basketball courts and a children’s play area, and the paved trail is easy going for scooters and small bicycles.

What is happening with the casino? A gaming licence for a casino and hotel complex next to the golf course was granted by the state on December 15, 2025, following a favourable community committee vote on September 29, 2025. The project uses roughly sixteen acres of the park; construction affects part of the east side, so check signage on arrival.