Pier 42

Pier 42 sits on a pier deck cantilevered over the East River in Manhattan's Lower East Side, between the FDR Drive and the Brooklyn waterfront. The park hosts four hard courts built directly on the pier structure, with open sightlines to the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges. No lights are installed, so play is limited to daylight hours.

Getting there requires some planning. The park is accessible via the East River Greenway, with entrances at Montgomery Street on the south side of the FDR Drive and through Corlears Hook Park at Cherry Street. The nearest subway is the F train at East Broadway, roughly a half-mile walk. No close bus stop serves the site directly. Bike access along the greenway is the most practical option for most visitors.

Courts at Pier 42 require an NYC Parks permit. The season runs from April 1 through the Sunday before Thanksgiving. An adult season permit costs $100 and covers all NYC Parks permit courts for the full season. If you only want a single session, a day pass is available for $15. Senior and youth discounts are available on the season permit.

The access model is first-come, first-served with an in-person line-up system rather than advance reservations. Play time is capped at one hour for singles and two hours for doubles, so courts turn over at a predictable pace during busy periods. No online booking exists for specific court times at Pier 42.

Pier 42 carries a distinctive history. The structure was Manhattan's last working cargo dock, nicknamed the Banana Pier because an estimated 935 million bananas arrived annually from Ecuador. The final shipment landed in November 1987, after which the pier sat abandoned for nearly two decades.

The transformation into a public park happened in phases. The sports deck, including the four tennis courts, opened in November 2022 as the first phase of the project. The full 8-acre park opened July 3, 2024. The design by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects earned the 2025 ASLA-NY Honor Award for its ecological restoration approach, which wove storm surge barriers and marine habitat into the recreational design rather than treating them as separate infrastructure.

Playing here is different from an inland court. The pier deck extends over open water, so the backdrop beyond the baselines is the East River and the Brooklyn shoreline. Wind can be a factor in a way that enclosed park courts rarely are. The views of the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges are unobstructed and present for every point.

For more places to play, see the best public tennis courts in NYC or browse every court in the city. Then find a partner at your level on Doyouplay before you go.