Randall’s Island Park Trail
Randall’s Island Park Trails offer a series of interconnected paved loops on an island in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park offers a quiet setting, especially enjoyed by runners, with views of the skyline and access to plentiful amenities, like restrooms and water fountains. Numerous recreational facilities are also available in the park, including baseball fields, tennis courts and stadiums. Natural backdrops include wildflower meadows and a salt marsh.
Pedestrian crossings over the Harlem River connect the trail to downtown Manhattan. An adjoining trail, the Randall’s Island Connector, crosses the Bronx Kill waterway, providing access to Bronx residents. On the southeast end of the island, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge Pedestrian Walkway over the East River connects the trail system to Queens.
Parking and Trail Access
Parking is available on the north end of the island off Bronx Shore Road, as well as by the baseball fields off Sunken Meadow Loop.
The Hell Gate Pathway is a multi-use path and landscape that connects Randall’s Island to networks of pedestrian and bicycle circulation in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens. Threading its way beneath the Amtrak trestle that runs the length of the island’s eastern shore, this dual path system travels along ball fields, wetlands and the little-known majesty of utility structures essential to New York’s operations. The planting strategy responds to this monumental scale with a strong, sustainable horticultural motif drawn from the abundance of local plant communities. Fine-grained details and successional landscapes humanize the industrial setting and explore a transect of the island’s ecology: mature and emergent woodlands, successional meadows, low-lying wetlands, grasslands, and river edge. Pavement markings and signage ensure ease of navigation. Transforming the island into a connector between three northern boroughs, the pathway becomes a destination in its own right, offering a trip through an industrial landscape modulated by a rhythm of wetland plantings and garden “rooms” on the backdrop of Long Island Sound.
