Manhattan gets its first BEACH: Gansevoort Peninsula overlooks the Hudson River - but visitors to the sandy strip are banned from swimming

Manhattan's first public beach that overlooks the Hudson River opened up on October 2 at Gansevoort Peninsula - but don't think about taking a dip off it!

Though there is a lovely view of the Lower Manhattan skyline, the beach located in the Meatpacking District has restricted visitors from swimming and only allows sunbathing. 

The beach has been in the works for 25 years and is now covered in 1,200 tons of sand, blue Adirondack chairs and umbrellas. 

The beach, worth $70million, is 5.5 acres and is officially the largest singular recreational space in Hudson River Park. 

'It's not a California beach in the city, it's not a Hamptons beach in the city, it's not the Jersey Shore in the city. It's a really great sandy area,' Noreen Doyle, president and chief executive of the Hudson River Park Trust told Los Angeles Times.

The new attraction, across from the Whitney Museum of American Art, can also serve as an access point for kayaking and non-motorized boats.

The beach, which has been named Gansevoort Peninsula Sand Bluff, has a sunning lawn, sports field, dog park, picnic area and fitness equipment can also be found in the area. 

'This is how we do things in New York. We see beauty and potential, we roll up our sleeves and we get to work,' New York Governor Kathy Hochul said. 

Hochul went on to say that the creation of the beach, located near Little Island, was a team effort between New York City and New York state that will 'check a lot of boxes' including 'climate change mitigation.' 

Decades ago, the area was once a strip of neglected piers that aged with post-industrial New York City.   

The water quality of the Hudson River also impacted the attraction of the pier as pollution took over. 

The New York state department has said that the water quality in the Hudson has improved in recent years. 

Between the 1960s and the 1980s many people swam in the Hudson River, but pollution soon deemed the waters unsafe. 

In 1998 a law was passed and helped create Hudson River Park from Battery Park City to West 59th Street in Hell's Kitchen. 

Former governor George Pataki who served between 1995 and 2006 promised a beach at Gansevoort that was once home to the Department of Sanitation. 

It wasn't until 2019 that steps to create the long-awaited beach commenced, as the Hudson River Park Trust announced it had chosen an architecture firm to turn the once-concrete location to a sandy oasis. 

The site was soon demolished, and issues started to ensue. Since the Hudson River is regulated, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation had to approve the plans before anything could proceed. 

Once that happened, the concept of the beach itself had its own struggles. 

Sanjukta Sen, who led Field Operations' design and project team, said the 'notion of water touching sand' soon became an unrealistic possibility for the beach.  

One factor that determined this was that the ferries coming in and out of the city on a daily basis have created rocky waters that could disturb the sand and swimmers. 

A new plan to lift the beach up high, away from direct water was then implemented so the sand wouldn't wash away. 

Severe weather has also played a role as New York City has seen more flash flooding in recent years that wouldn't do well on a typical man-made beach. 

The tons of sand were shipped in from New Jersey that Doyle said is 'pristine, new, not-used-for-recreation-before-sand.' 

Sen said that the beach is a 'bit of an ongoing experiment' that will be tested as extreme weather comes through. 

'We haven’t seen the full spectrum of it yet. It’s so new,' Sen said. 

Officials revealed that future revitalization efforts are slated to take place with the upcoming opening of Pier 97 in Hell's Kitchen.