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Jun

12

68°F

Sunrise
05:25 AM
Sunset
08:28 PM
Tide

HIGH 1:28 AM


Low 7:51 AM

Park Hours and Info

Park is Open 7 Days a Week | 6AM - 1AM
Entry is Free!

Pier 28AM - 11PM* Pier 56AM - 11PM* Education Center3-5PM (THU/FRI), 1-5PM (SAT) Pier 6 Volleyball Courts6AM - 11PM Playgroundssunrise-sunset

Squibb Park & Bridge

Squibb Park & Bridge
Squibb Park & Bridge
Squibb Park & Bridge
Squibb Park & Bridge
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How To Get Here

Open

Parking is limited, so we encourage you to take public transportation. And lucky for you, there are plenty of transportation options.

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Subway

2
3

Clark Street

A
C

High Street or Jay St- MetroTech

4
5

Borough Hall

F

York Street

Bus

B25
B61
B63
B67

B25 (at Fulton Ferry Landing), B61 (at Atlantic Avenue and Hicks Street), B63 (on the loop road near Pier 6 in the park), or B67 (at Jay Street and York Street)

CitiBike

Nearby CitiBike stations: Atlantic Ave & Furman St (Pier 6); Brooklyn Bridge Park – Pier 2; Old Fulton St (Pier 1); Water St & Main St (Main Street)

NYC Ferry

East River route to Dumbo/Fulton Ferry; or South Brooklyn Route to Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6/Atlantic Avenue or DUMBO/Fulton Ferry.

Places to See

SQUIBB PARK & BRIDGE

Squibb Park Bridge provides a unique and vital access point into the Park. The Bridge’s proximity to public transportation offers park visitors a route to Brooklyn Bridge Park that is not only convenient but dramatic.

Walk across the now iconic Squibb Bridge to experience views of Lower Manhattan like you’ve never seen! This specially designed and engineered bridge zigs and zags, connecting Squibb Park in Brooklyn Heights to the Greenway in Brooklyn Bridge Park at Pier 1.

Squibb Park and Bridge are open 8am-10pm. Bikes, scooters, skateboards, and the like must be walked across the bridge.

Squibb Park offers a flexible space for children to ride scooters or play other hardtop games. Permits to occupy this space with programs are issued by Brooklyn Bridge Park. More information on obtaining permits here.

Aerial view of Squibb Bridge on a sunny day.

© Etienne Frossard

© Alexa Hoyer

© Alexa Hoyer

© Alexa Hoyer

People walking along Squibb Bridge at dusk.

© Julienne Schaer

© Alexa Hoyer

© Alexa Hoyer
People walking along Squibb Bridge on a sunny day.

© Julienne Schaer

Benches in Squibb Bridge Park on a sunny day.
Benches and entrance ramp in Squibb Bridge Park on a sunny day.
People walking along Squibb Bridge on a sunny day.

© Julienne Schaer

HISTORY

This playground honors Dr. Edward Robinson Squibb (1819-1900), founder of Squibb Pharmaceuticals, later known as Bristol-Myers Squibb. Squibb was born in Delaware and made his life in Brooklyn, settling on Middagh Street in 1858. He built the first Squibb laboratories on a site behind the present playground; if you look closely you can still see the name Squibb written on the smokestacks.

Squibb was a naval surgeon in active service for ten years. After opening and establishing his first laboratory on Furman Street – a modest office marked with “Edward R. Squibb, M.D.” on the door – he became very influential in both the development of anesthetics and the passage of pure food and drug laws. Squibb discovered how to distill pure ether for safe use as an anesthetic, and was renowned for his high standards and the quality of his products.

In 1944, the Board of Estimate authorized the acquisition of this property by condemnation as part of the construction of Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, or BQE. The site was acquired in 1945, and title was vested to the City in 1946. With the construction of this playground, Robert Moses (1888-1981) was using both his powers as Parks Commissioner and Chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA).

Moses directed the construction of the BQE through the TBTA, and the expressway was built between 1946 and 1964 at a cost of $137 million dollars. Federal, state, and municipal funds were all necessary to complete the six-lane, 11.7 mile-long conduit with long elevated stretches. The BQE was intended not only to relieve congestion on local streets, but also to aid industry and business by shortening transportation time between the boroughs. After repeated rehabilitation attempts in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the BQE will receive a $240-million dollar comprehensive reconstruction from the New York State Department of Transportation, beginning in 2001 with scheduled completion 2004.

This park, located on Furman Street, Middagh Street, and Columbia Heights, was built in the late 1940s and named Edward Robinson Squibb Park by Local Law 30 in 1959. The park is tucked away below the street, next to the BQE. The playground is still equipped with the uniform apparatus which characterizes the era of its construction: swings, jungle gym, sand box, sprinklers, basketball court. Also present in the parkland is a comfort station, flagpole with yardarm, benches, a drinking fountain, pin oaks (Quercus palustris), London planetrees (Platanus x acerifolia), and a plaque commemorating Squibb and his contributions to science.

From NYC Department of Parks

37 nautical bollards were savaged and reused in the Pier 3 Labyrinth.

The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 14th, 1883. It was the first bridge to cross the East River, the largest suspension bridge built at the time, and was called the “eighth wonder of the world.”

The building at 99 Plymouth Street, now home to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Environmental Education Center, public restrooms, and a community space, was formally a NYC Department of Environmental Protection building

Construction of the park began in January 2009.

Demolition on the waterfront began in 2008.

Emily Roebling Plaza is 20,000 square feet

Empire Stores and the Tobacco warehouse are both Civil War Era buildings

20,000

participated in environmental education programs

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365

Days Open Per Year

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3,000

Trees in the park

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