Gantry Plaza State Park

48th Avenue at the East River

“Dedicated in 1998, this 2 1/2 acre park is located at 48th Avenue and the East River and is part of the ongoing Queens West Development. The beautiful park includes two historic Long Island Rail Road gantries (the ‘gantry’ in Gantry Park) and four piers each with a different theme.” (QueensWest.com, 2000)

The park’s section on QueensWest.com carried the mission of the Friends of Gantry Plaza State Park, park events such as the 2001 summer concert series, and a picture gallery. Several QueensWest.com pub crawls started at the park’s piers.

What is a gantry?

A gantry is a large piece of machinery used to load and unload railcars from railships onto the tracks. They do this by raising and lowering a platform between the barge and land so the engine can back right up to the barge, connect to the cars and unload them.

What is the future for the park?

The entire park is set to grow the length of the shoreline and be over a mile and a half long as outlined in the master plan. The next phase of the park will be the peninsula park area. (2001)

Answers written by the site’s founder. Original spelling kept.

On the original site: Discussion board (not republished), mission, events, FAQ, picture gallery.

See the Gantry Plaza State Park picture gallery (79 photos, as the site last had it) · archived version (76 photos from Wayback Machine captures)

The beautiful park includes two historic Long Island Rail Road gantries (the 'gantry' in Gantry Park) and four piers each with a different theme. It was expended in July of 2009 to include the East Coast area and now features more open space and fields.

Picture Gallery

There are a new set of pictures in the Gantry Park Picture Gallery.

Discussion Board

There is a discussion board just for news, articles, issues and concerns about Gantry Park. Feel free to post messages but please remember to read the instructions.

Friends of Gantry Park Mission

The Friends of Gantry Park is a community-based organization that formed out of an appreciation for this special public place on the Queens waterfront. Read more about the Friends of Gantry Park on the Mission & Goals page.

Mission

The Friends of Gantry Park is a community-based organization that formed out of an appreciation for this special public place on the Queens waterfront.

Our mission is to enhance the quality of life of Long Island City by promoting awareness, concern and participation for the publicly accessible green and open spaces in the neighborhood and the waterfront.

Goals

We are dedicated to the following goals:

• Assisting the park's staff and management in the maintenance of the natural and man-made features of the landscape
• Preserving the tranquil beauty of this retreat along the river
• Contributing community input to the design of future phases of the park's development
• Participating in, and helping to plan, special events and activities that celebrate the community and the park
• Enhancing play and recreational opportunities in the area
• Monitoring potential problems, informing authorities about the problems, and tracking the problems to help justify adequate levels of park personnel and police
• Promoting an understanding of the unique environmental concerns of the waterfront
• Encouraging the improvement and expansion of publicly accessible green and open space in the neighborhood.

We strive to realize these goals through the work of committees focused on specific concerns, and the efforts of the group as a whole working in cooperation with the public and private agencies responsible for the improvement of Hunter's Point.

Membership

Participation and membership in The Friends of Gantry Park is open to all who support our mission.