Tours / Brooklyn

Self-guided walking tour

Greenpoint to Williamsburg Waterfront

A MUSEENYC walking tour · Free, and not sponsored by anyone

Distance
3.3 miles
Time
3 hours
Stops
12, 4 private (view from the sidewalk only)
Start
WNYC Transmitter Park (G to Greenpoint Av)
End
Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway

Greenpoint was Polish shipbuilding and oil refining; Williamsburg was German brewing, then Hasidic and Puerto Rican, then the most photographed gentrification story in America. The walk runs north to south down the East River with the best skyline views in the city, cutting inland for the parts people skip.

Route card

Screenshot this. Full detail for each stop is further down.

  1. 1WNYC Transmitter Park
  2. 2Greenpoint Historic District, Milton StreetPrivate — view from the sidewalk only
  3. 3Manhattan Avenue
  4. 4Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the TransfigurationPrivate — view from the sidewalk only
  5. 5McCarren Park and the Bathhouse
  6. 6Bedford Avenue
  7. 7Williamsburg HousesPrivate — view from the sidewalk only
  8. 8Domino Park
  9. 9Grand Ferry Park
  10. 10Wythe Avenue and North 11thPrivate — view from the sidewalk only
  11. 11Marsha P. Johnson State Park
  12. 12Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway

Private stops include people's homes: no gates, no doorways, no photographing into windows.

Get the map

The Google map for this tour is on its way. Until it's up, the walking navigation links below take you from stop to stop, and the printable guide has every stop in it.

Getting there and back

Start
G to Greenpoint Av, six minutes to the park. Or NYC Ferry East River route to India St.
Finish
Walk the bridge into Manhattan for F/M/J/Z at Delancey-Essex. Or J/M/Z at Marcy Av without crossing.
Along the route
G train up the middle at Greenpoint Av, Nassau Av, Metropolitan Av. L train at Bedford Av and Graham Av. J/M/Z at Marcy Av and Hewes St. Buses: B62 on Manhattan Ave, B43 on Graham, B32 on Kent Ave, B24 on Greenpoint Ave, B48 on Lorimer. NYC Ferry stops at India St, N 6th St and S Williamsburg.

Cutting it short

Every walk here has exits. Good ones on this route:

  • After stop 4 (Cathedral): G at Nassau Av, three blocks.
  • After stop 6 (Bedford Ave): L at Bedford Av, right there. One stop to Manhattan.
  • After stop 7 (Williamsburg Houses): L at Graham Av or Grand St.
  • After stop 10 (Wythe Ave): NYC Ferry at N 6th St, or L at Bedford Av.

The walk through Greenpoint / Williamsburg, Brooklyn

1WNYC Transmitter Park

Open to the public

The city's municipal radio station broadcast from towers on this site from 1937 to the 1990s. It became a park in 2012. The pier gives you midtown straight on across the river, and it is far enough north that almost nobody is on it.

Open in maps ↗40.72975, -73.96100

2Greenpoint Historic District, Milton Street

Private — view from the sidewalk only

Walk: East on Greenpoint Ave to Franklin St, north to Milton St.

Milton, Noble and Kent between Franklin and Manhattan Avenue are the core. Greenpoint got rich on shipbuilding, the Monitor was built here, and the row houses reflect it: mansards, brackets, cast-iron stoops. St. Anthony of Padua's white spire at Manhattan and Milton is the neighborhood's landmark.

Open in maps ↗40.73000, -73.95510

3Manhattan Avenue

Open to the public

Walk: East on Milton St to Manhattan Ave.

Heads up: St Anthony's white spire at Manhattan and Milton is the neighborhood marker.

Bakeries, butchers and Polish delis mixed in with new coffee shops. Greenpoint has held the largest Polish community in the city since the 1950s and the street signs, church notices and shop windows still show it. Get a paczki.

Open in maps ↗40.72700, -73.95450

4Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration

Private — view from the sidewalk only

Walk: South on Manhattan Ave to Driggs Ave, then east to N 12th St. About 12 minutes.

Or ride: B43 or B62 bus south on Manhattan Ave, or G train Greenpoint Av to Nassau Av.

North 12th and Driggs. Built for a congregation of Russian immigrants, with five copper-clad onion domes that turn up in the background of half the movies shot in Williamsburg. It was designed by Louis Allmendinger and is a landmark from three blocks away.

Open in maps ↗40.72500, -73.95050

5McCarren Park and the Bathhouse

Open to the public

Walk: South on Driggs Ave three blocks into the park. The bathhouse is on the Lorimer St side.

The pool held 6,800 people when Robert Moses opened it in 1936, one of eleven built in a single summer. It closed in 1984, sat derelict, hosted concerts in the empty basin in the 2000s, and reopened as a pool in 2012. The park straddles the Greenpoint-Williamsburg line and everyone uses it.

Open in maps ↗40.72150, -73.95200

6Bedford Avenue

Open to the public

Walk: South through the park to N 12th St, west to Bedford Ave, then south.

Or ride: L train Bedford Av.

Heads up: Walk with your eyes up. The ground floors changed; the buildings did not.

From North 12th down to Metropolitan. Bedford Avenue in 2000 and Bedford Avenue now are two different streets, and both versions still show through if you look above the ground floor. Worth walking with your eyes up.

Open in maps ↗40.71750, -73.95700

7Williamsburg Houses

Private — view from the sidewalk only

Walk: East on Metropolitan Ave to Graham Ave, south to Maujer St. About 20 minutes and worth it.

Or ride: L train one stop Bedford Av to Graham Av, or B43 bus.

Heads up: A real detour east, away from the waterfront. Skip it if you are short on time.

Maujer Street area, a detour east. Designed with Swiss architect William Lescaze, the buildings are turned 15 degrees off the street grid to catch light and air, in white glazed brick with ribbon windows. It was the most expensive and most architecturally ambitious public housing in America when it opened, and it is a New York City landmark.

Open in maps ↗40.70950, -73.94500

8Domino Park

Open to the public

Walk: West on Grand St to Kent Ave, then north to S 5th St. About 25 minutes.

Or ride: B32 bus north on Kent Ave, or L back to Bedford Av and walk west.

The refinery processed over half the sugar consumed in the United States in the 1880s and was the site of a 20-month strike in 2000. The park keeps the syrup tanks, gantry cranes and a section of elevated catwalk you can walk. The 1884 refinery building itself now has a glass volume inserted inside the brick shell.

Open in maps ↗40.71410, -73.96730Our review →

9Grand Ferry Park

Open to the public

Walk: North on Kent Ave to Grand St, then west to the water.

Heads up: Tiny park, lone brick smokestack, best low-angle Empire State view in the city.

A tiny park at the end of Grand Street where the ferry to Manhattan ran before the bridge. It has a lone surviving brick smokestack and possibly the best low-angle view of the Empire State Building across the water. Rarely more than a handful of people.

Open in maps ↗40.71750, -73.96900

10Wythe Avenue and North 11th

Private — view from the sidewalk only

Walk: North on Kent Ave to N 11th St, then east to Wythe Ave.

The industrial core of north Williamsburg: brick and timber warehouses, many now hotels, offices and studios. The Wythe Hotel building was a 1901 barrel factory. Look at the ground floors and the loading bays still in the facades.

Open in maps ↗40.72170, -73.95800

11Marsha P. Johnson State Park

Open to the public

Walk: West on N 8th or N 9th St back to Kent Ave.

Heads up: Smorgasburg runs here Saturdays in season. Original rail tracks are still in the lawn.

Previously East River State Park, on the site of a 19th-century shipping terminal; the original rail tracks and cobbles are still embedded in the lawn. Renamed for the activist and Stonewall figure in 2020. Smorgasburg runs here on Saturdays in season.

Open in maps ↗40.72300, -73.96350

12Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway

Open to the public

Walk: South on Kent Ave, then Wythe Ave to Broadway, east to the walkway entrance near Bedford Ave and S 5th Pl. About 20 minutes.

Or ride: NYC Ferry from N 6th St if you would rather cross by boat, or J/M/Z at Marcy Av.

Heads up: About 25 minutes across. Wide, separated from traffic, and the best ending this walk has.

Opened 1903, the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time, and built in raw steel with no stone towers because it was meant to be cheap and fast. The walkway is wide, separated from traffic, and puts you over the middle of the East River. About 25 minutes across, and the best possible ending to this walk.

Open in maps ↗40.71000, -73.96600

Combining this with other tours

  • Tour 3 (East Village to LES) picks up right where the Williamsburg Bridge lands you. Walk off the bridge at Delancey and Clinton and you are two blocks from Essex Market, stop 9.
  • Tour 2 (Brooklyn Heights) is 20 minutes south on the G plus the A/C, if you want a two-waterfront Brooklyn day.
  • Tour 10 (Williamsburg Bridge) is this tour's mirror image: it crosses the bridge the other way and shares the Domino, Grand Ferry, Marsha P. Johnson and Bedford Ave stops. Pick a direction, do not run both in one day.

Take it with you

Download the printable guide

A PDF with every stop, direction and transit option, for when your battery or your signal gives out.

Want this one led in person?

This walk is free to follow and always downloadable above. We also lead it privately, for your party only: a licensed New York City Sightseeing Guide doing the navigating and the photographs while you look up at the city instead of at a map.

See private guided walks

About MUSEENYC

MUSEENYC writes free guides to New York museums, neighborhoods and walks. Nothing here is sponsored, nothing is paid placement, and no one pays to be included.

Questions about a stop, a closure, or anything else on this walk? Reach MUSEENYC at museenyc.tours@gmail.com or @museenyc on Instagram.

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